I'm loving the original marketing for Blade Runner 2049, whether it's from Warner Bros.' distribution wing here in the States or Sony Pictures Entertainment in Japan. In addition to the traditional clips, featurettes, and trailers, we've also seen two original short films that fill in the story gaps between Ridley Scott's original picture and Denis Villeneuve's upcoming sequel: one featured Jared Leto's curious character Niander Wallace while the more recent one took a look at Dave Bautista's mysterious Sapper. A third prequel story, however, takes a very different approach.

Hailing from director Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Animatrix) comes Blade Runner: Black Out 2022, a new prequel that's going to be animated in the visionary's signature style. A new behind-the-scenes clip from the short film has been released; the full version will be available soon. Consider me excited!

Villeneuve reteams with frequent cinematographer Roger Deakins for the sci-fi story with Ridley Scott as executive producer; Blade Runner scribe Hampton Fancher and Michael Green penned the screenplay for the sequel. Starring Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Jared Leto, Robin Wright, Barkhad Abdi, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Lennie James, and Mackenzie Davis, Blade Runner 2049 opens in theaters on October 6th.

Check out a behind-the-scenes clip from the making of Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 below (via Yahoo!):

Kotaku kindly has some translations for us from Watanabe and the Sony Pictures Japan animated prequel. Watanabe himself says, “The work that has influenced me the most in my anime profession would be, of course, Blade Runner,” before going on to affirm that he's going to pay homage to the original film without making an imitation of it. We'll be able to judge for ourselves once the full short is released on September 26th on Sony Pictures Japan YouTube channel, but it looks and sounds like Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 is in good hands.

For more on Blade Runner, be sure to check out our recent write-ups below:

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Image via Sony Pictures Japan
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Image via Sony Pictures Japan