The first Blade Runner movie, starring Harrison Ford, won both hearts and awards but most notably, became a cult favorite. Unfortunately, we had to wait for almost thirty-five years until the sequel, Blade Runner 2049 came out in 2017.
The sequel was quickly followed by a short animated video – Black Out 2022, directed by Shinichiro Watanabe. But it seems like that’s not all for the franchise… there’s more!
Blade Runner: Black Lotus is an upcoming original animated series jointly developed by Crunchyroll and Adult Swim. It will be simulcasted on Crunchyroll and Toonami globally with subtitles. Black Lotus will be a short series with a 13 episode lineup.
Crunchyroll recently announced that the cast for the Black Lotus will be present at their exclusive panel at San Diego Comic-Con@Home 2021 on Friday, July 23.
The panel will start at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET on Friday. Fans will get a chance to hear from the creative team and voice talents. Shinji Aramaki (co-director), Kenji Kamiyama (co-director), Joseph Chou (executive producer), Wes Gleason (voice director), Jessica Henwick (voice of Elle), and Jason DeMarco (co-creator of Toonami/senior vice-president and creative director for Adult Swim/moderator) will be a part of the panel.
There will of course be an exclusive first look at the series during the SDCC panel.
The English and Japanese voice cast includes:
| Character | Intro | Played By |
| Elle | A female replicant created for a secret and unknown purpose | Jessica Henwick / Arisa Shida |
| Joseph | A mysterious figure who owns a spare parts junkyard in Los Angeles | Will Yun Lee / Shinshu Fuji |
| Alani Davis | A fresh LAPD recruit | Samira Wiley / Takako Honda |
| Niander Wallace Sr | Founder, and CEO of the Wallace Corporation | Brian Cox / Takaya Hashi |
| Niander Wallace Jr | A brilliant scientist working for his father | Wes Bentley / Takehito Koyasu |
| Marlowe | A deadly Blade Runner | Josh Duhamel / Taiten Kusunoki |
| Josephine Grant | The wife of the police chief | Oshiko Sakakibara ce chief |
| Earl Grant\ | Police Chief of the LAPD | Stephen Root / Hochu Otsuka / |
| Doc Badger | A black market dealer | Barkhad Abdi /Takayuki Kinba / |
| Doctor M | A brilliant doctor and professor of | Henry Czerny / Akio Nojima |
| Hooper | A journalist in the pocket of the Wallace Corporation | Jason Spisak / Kazuki Yao |
Black Lotus Timeline
After watching God of High School and Tower of God, I can certainly say that the upcoming CGI-animated Crunchyroll Original will have jaw-dropping animation and fight sequences.
The Blade Runner franchise starts with the first movie set in November 2019 when four rogue Replicants escaped to Earth. It was upto the Replicant Hunter Deckard to hunt them down and bring them to justice. The film was loosely inspired by Philip K. Dick’s famous novel, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?“
The story then continues in the recent short video – Black Out 2022. It shows the infamous Black Out event that wiped out all the public data in the world.
According to this exclusive interview, Black Lotus animated series is set in 2032. The world lies in complete chaos before Wallace Corp’s rise to power in 2044. In fact, judging from how Black Out ended, the upcoming series will likely show the Replicant struggle and introduce the Wallace Corp.
We are likely to see how they persuaded authorities and got the license to bio-engineer a new series of Replicants in 2042. This would tie the story perfectly to the 2017 film – Blade Runner 2049.
I guess we’ll have to wait until the Comic-Con panel to know more!
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