Blade Runner

While Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 was a hit with critics (including over here at Consequence), it didn’t make a splash at the box office – instead, it dripped, like tears in rain.

Still, that won’t be the last we see of the Blade Runner universe. Adult Swim has just announced its partnership with anime streaming service Crunchyroll and Alcon Television Group to produce a 13-episode anime series set in the world of replicants and spinners, called Blade Runner – Black Lotus. Shinichiro Watanabe, the legendary director behind the anime series Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, will serve as creative producer on the series, which will be directed by Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama.



According to a press release, Black Lotus will “take place in 2032 and will include some familiar characters from the Blade Runner universe.” Says Adult Swim SVP/Creative Director Jason DeMarco, “I first saw Blade Runner in 1982, at age 11. It has remained one of the defining films of my life. To be able to explore more of this universe, with the incredible talent we have on board, is a dream come true.”

(Read: 10 Things Blade Runner Thought We’d Have by Now)

This won’t be the first time Watanabe has dipped his toes into the world of Blade Runner, of course – he directed the stellar anime short “Black Out 2022” as a tie-in to 2049’s release, detailing the events leading up to the “Blackout” that erased all the world’s information prior to Villeneuve’s sequel. We can only hope that Black Lotus captures some of that feel (and its awesome Flying Lotus score), and fleshes out the world between the two seminal cyberpunk films. Watch it below.