Amazon's Highly Anticipated Sci-Fi Series Faces Major Delays

Amazon Prime Video's highly anticipated sci-fi series, Blade Runner 2099, has reportedly fallen victim to the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. The series, which is set 50 years after the events of Blade Runner 2049 and 80 years after the original Blade Runner film, was scheduled to begin filming at Belfast Ireland's Harbour Studios this spring. Based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the franchise depicts a futuristic world where synthetic humans created for space colonies return to Earth and are pursued by authorities. The original film starred Harrison Ford as a blade runner tasked with capturing and eliminating escaped replicants, while the sequel featured Ryan Gosling as a replicant Blade Runner who uncovers a dark secret.

The ongoing writers’ strike has caused a delay of up to a year in the production of the Blade Runner series, as reported by the BBC. Northern Ireland Screen expressed their disappointment over the delay, stating that the project had been preparing in Belfast for several months. The strike by the WGA has affected productions globally, and the hope is that a fair deal will be reached soon, allowing the crew to resume work.

Amazon prioritized the development of the Blade Runner series last September, with Silka Luisa (Shining Girls) writing the script and Ridley Scott executive producing. However, the ongoing strike, now in its third week, has impacted the production of many highly anticipated shows, including Netflix's Stranger Things, HBO's The Last of Us, and Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale. The strike is expected to have a significant impact on the sci-fi genre, which already has longer production schedules due to factors like editing and effects. With sci-fi heavily reliant on skilled writers to create imaginative world-building, adaptations of popular books and video games, in particular, require writers to expand and enhance the source material.

Blade Runner 2099 is scheduled to premiere on Amazon Prime Video on an unknown date.

Source: BBC