Adult Swim and Crunchyroll have unveiled the first trailer for the upcoming 'Blade Runner: Black Lotus' anime series which is set between the events of Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049. The trailer was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con@Home 2021 on Friday.
The 13-episode series is directed by Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama and produced by Alcon Entertainment and animation studio Sola Digital Arts, with Shinichiro Watanabe serving as a creative producer. Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop) and Aramaki also worked together on Blade Runner Black Out 2022, a prequel anime short released in the run-up to Blade Runner 2049.
In Black Lotus, Jessica Henwick voices Elle, a female Replicant created for mysterious purposes. Set in 2032 Los Angeles, the show follows Elle as she discovers new details about herself, which include being an expert at fighting with a katana, and uncovering conspiracies. There’s more action here than you’d expect from a typical Blade Runner property; the series as always favored a navel-gazing neo-noir tone.
“How did I do this?” Elle asks in the trailer, after having wasted a couple of goons. She’s warned by Will Yun Lee’s Joseph, a mysterious figure who owns a spare parts junkyard in Los Angeles, to “walk away”. She refuses. Meanwhile, Niander Wallace Sr, founder and CEO of the Wallace Corporation, says in what fans of Succession will instantly recognize as the voice of Brian Cox, “There are ways you have to do things, if you want them to happen.”
The trailer also teases the kind of neon-infused sword fighting that would make Nicolas Winding Refn proud, a quick glimpse at what looks like the Bradbury Building from Ridley Scott’s original Blade Runner, and loads of Coca-Cola billboards. Executive producer Joseph Chou said at the Comic-Con panel that the goal is to anchor the series “from the perspective of the one that’s hunted, but also a female hero who happens to be trapped in this world, and is trying to find out her identity and the reason for the situation that she’s in…”
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Alessia Cara, whose original song Feel You Now is featured in the new trailer, will also have music featured in the series. Blade Runner: Black Lotus will arrive in the fall.
Watch the Blade Runner: Black Lotus trailer here and check out the new poster below:
