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Blade Runner 2049: The Sequel We’ve Been Waiting For?

Last week I discussed the potential promise for the future of the Terminator film series, with the return of influential figures James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger, while wisely tapping Deadpool’s Tim Miller to direct. While this will act as a reinvigoration for what has been a longstanding film series, there is also an upcoming sequel that is more than worth mentioning, not least because it comes more than 30 years after the first (and only) installment: Blade Runner 2049.

Like the first two Terminator installments, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is considered to be one of the finest and most influential achievements in the history of cinematic science fiction. While there have been an infamous number of cuts for the film, and I myself admit to having only seen The Final Cut, it is nonetheless renowned for numerous aspects of its production, direction, and the deceivingly heavy, thematically complex screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples.

While Scott will serve as a producer for the sequel, the film also sees the return of Harrison Ford as Rick Decker, and Fancher as screenwriter (with the talented Michael Green co-writing), which is already enough to put any fanboy at ease…albeit with the usual tentativeness that comes before any film of this big-budget calibre.

If all this wasn’t enough, filling Scott’s big directorial shoes is the Oscar-nominated director of Arrival, Denis Villeneuve, with fellow Canadian Ryan Gosling serving as the film’s lead.

Those involved are not the only reason to expect great things from Blade Runner 2049, though. The 1982 prequel features one of the best concluding moments in the history of cinema, not least with how it rejects convention in favour of a powerful soliloquy by the film’s villain in his final moments, encapsulating many of the screenplay’s the core ideals.

But I digress, as it is when Deckard flees with Rachel, the replicant he falls in love with (and for those of you who don’t know, replicant is the name given to the androids that Deckard hunts), that holds the most significance, as it adds credence (at least in The Final Cut) to one of the most hotly debated unanswered questions in the history of cinema: if Deckard himself is a replicant.

This is a question that has divided even those involved in the original film’s making, and Ridley Scott himself has promised to unequivocally address the matter, which I am sure will please the masses, though it may not sit so well with those who preferred the original’s ambiguity. Personally, I believe Deckard is a replicant (based on hints dropped by the 1982 film), but until October, it will remain nothing more than conjecture.

Feel free to comment below if you agree or disagree with me, and share your own thoughts on the upcoming sequel.

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