Alcon has been looking to expand the Blade Runner world since they got the rights to the property (rights that restrict them from remaking the original 1982 film) and we saw the Blade Runner 2049 film last year as well as a short that was produced and streamed at Crunchyroll. We learned back in November 2020 that a new thirteen-episode series inspired by that recent film is in the works with Crunchyroll with Adult Swim set to air it. Called Blade Runner: Black Lotus, it’s set in 2032 and we now have a look at the opening sequence in two versions below. The Crunchyroll version plays more traditionally anime with the opening theme song that comes from Alessia Cara, who is on board for an original song with “Feel You Now” for it, while the Adult Swim/Toonami version is without the song and feels more in line with the films.
The casts include:
- Jessica Henwick/Arisa Shida as Elle, a female replicant created for a secret and unknown purpose
- Will Yun Lee/Shinshū Fuji as Joseph, a mysterious figure who owns a spare parts junkyard in Los Angeles
- Samira Wiley/Takako Honda as Alani Davis, a fresh LAPD recruit
- Brian Cox/Takaya Hashi as Niander Wallace Sr, founder and CEO of the Wallace Corporation
- Wes Bentley/Takehito Koyasu as Niander Wallace Jr, a brilliant scientist working for his father
- Josh Duhamel/Taiten Kusunoki as Marlowe, a deadly Blade Runner
- Peyton List/Yoshiko Sakakibara as Josephine Grant, the wife of the police chief
- Stephen Root/Hochu Otsuka as Earl Grant, Police Chief of the LAPD
- Barkhad Abdi/Takayuki Kinba as Doc Badger, a black market dealer
- Gregg Henry/Masane Tsukayama as Senator Bannister, a politician with strong feelings on replicant production.
- Henry Czerny/Akio Nojima as Doctor M, a brilliant doctor and professor of medicine
- Jason Spisak/Kazuki Yao as Hooper, a journalist in the pocket of the Wallace Corporation
The series has Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama directing it at Sold Digital Arts. Shinichiro Watanabe is on board as a creative producer.
“I first saw Blade Runner in 1982, at age 11. It has remained one of the defining films of my life,” said Jason DeMarco, senior vp/creative director of Adult Swim on-air back in November. “To be able to explore more of this universe, with the incredible talent we have on board, is a dream come true.”
Adult Swim has the worldwide non-Asia rights to the dubbed version which will be on Toonami. Crunchyroll will handle the worldwide streaming.
Check out the 2022 short from last year below.
Plot concept: Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
