A couple years ago, Denis Villeneuve brought us BLADE RUNNER 2049, a long-awaited follow-up to Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi classic BLADE RUNNER. The sequel underperformed at the box office and didn't go over well with Rutger Hauer, but it also earned its fair share of fans – for example, our own Eric Walkuski gave the film an 8/10 review.
BLADE RUNNER 2049 landed at #45 in Empire magazine's 100 Greatest Movies Of The Century issue, and while discussing the experience he had making the movie Villeneuve told Empire that he would like to make another film set in the world of BLADE RUNNER… but he doesn't want it to be another sequel.
I think cinema needs original stories. But if you ask me if I’d like to revisit this universe in a different way, I can say yes. It would need to be a project on its own. Something disconnected from both other movies. A detective noir story set in the future… I wake up sometimes in the night dreaming about it."
Villeneuve isn't the only one who has been thinking about returning to the world of these films. Soon after the release of 2049, Scott told Digital Spy that he thought
there is another story. I've got another one ready to evolve and be developed, so there is certainly one to be done for sure."
We'll have to wait and see if another BLADE RUNNER ends up going into production. Whether it's a sequel or something disconnected, if a new one is made it'd be wise to make it on a budget lower than 2049's $150 million.