The Strange History of the Blade Runner IP
Hello, and welcome (back?) to The Adjacent Possible. This is a home for my writings about the world of speculative and science fiction. Over the course of 2023 I’m planning to share a series of essays devoted to different aspects of the greatest movie ever made, which coincidentally happens to be my favorite as well, Blade Runner. This first piece is an in-depth look at the IP in all its strange and sometimes baffling permutations.
I saw Blade Runner in 1982 — at the age of 12 — when it first came out. For as long as I can remember, it has been my favorite movie. I never found it slow, or confusing. I was never “put off” by the Harrison Ford voice-over of the original theatrical release version. From the first time I saw it, I just connected with the film in a way that has rarely, if ever, happened since.
Of course, I loved many other films. From other genre fare (Star Wars, Inception, Alien, Terminator, etc.) to more mainstream films (Devil Wears Prada, An American President, Crazy, Stupid Love); those “rewatchables” that you’ll always stop on when they come up on some cable network.
But Blade Runner is different. My interest in the film is closer to an obsession. But even that does not accurately portray the situation. I’m not just obsessed with the 1982 film, Blade Runner, I’m obsessed with the IP that started with the 1982 film, Blade Runner¹. I can never get enough, it’s sort of like…
Nothing is worse than having an itch you can never scratch.
And so here I am 40+ years after the film, haunted like Ryan Gosling in the SNL bit about the Avatar font. And because I love the IP so much, I’ve become a bit of a completist (don’t ask how much I paid for a copy of Eye and Talon).
And yet I’m haunted.
Ridley Scott and an amazing team of artists (in front of, and behind the camera) created something so incredible, it’s rightly credited as one of the most influential films of the last half-century.
And yet.
And yet what that film has birthed is a growing volume of in-universe (or adjacent) works that overall, fail to reach the heights of the original film
Yes, a 40+ year legacy that includes a sequel feature film, a video game, books, comics, anime, and a tabletop roleplaying game, most of which has never come particularly close to reaching the level achieved by the original.
Now, you could certainly say that it’s an unfair comparison. Asking others to match the artistic high point of Ridley Scott and his collaborators is an extremely high bar. I’ll grant you that. But that is the curse of the classic — what follows it will be measured against it.
If you’re reading this essay, you’ve likely already answered the following question: Are we sure Blade Runner is actually good? I mean, if it were so great, why was it a box officer flop? Why are there so many versions? Why is it so divisive, even among its fans?
Good questions, but not the focus of this essay. We’ll put all that aside and note that the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993 and is frequently taught in university courses. In 2007, it was named the second-most visually influential film of all time by the Visual Effects Society². Furthermore, it was voted the best science fiction film ever made in a 2004 poll of 60 eminent world scientists.
Caveat
Before we dive in, I want to make one thing clear: Creating art, of any kind, is incredibly difficult. Dozens of things have to go right for something amazing to be produced. Heck, dozens of things have to go right even for something mediocre to be produced. I also believe everyone who has ever worked on a Blade Runner project — artists, writers, directors, actors, producers, designers, you name it — have all done their work with the intention of doing their absolute best. For those reasons, I find it hard to critique individuals. Sometimes, for any number of reasons, the final creation doesn’t always resonate with an audience, or certain members of the audience (i.e., me).
The comments I have are purely individual. Your mileage may vary in terms of your opinion on the works. I welcome your comments.
One further note, I did reach out to executives at Titan, Alcon, Free League, and Electric Shepherd Productions for their insights into the Blade Runner IP as I wanted to present as full a picture as possible. I did speak to Tomas Harenstam, CEO of Free League, and I very much appreciated his thoughts. Beyond that, I received no responses. On the off chance they see this piece and would like to respond or request corrections/edits, I would be happy to oblige.
A Note on Canon
Any discussion of franchise IP has to include a note on what is, and what is not canon. Andrew E.C. Gaska does a great job of laying this out for the Alien franchise in his piece titled, Defining Canon in an Alien World. I especially liked the way Gaska broke the canon into tiers.
Defining canon for the Blade Runner IP is fairly difficult. It’s fair to say the original source material, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, is not canon. Even putting that aside, which of the seven versions of Blade Runner is canon? For the purposes of this essay, let’s go with the Final Cut, and keep canon to the following:
Tier 1: Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Blade Runner 2049, the accompanying three short films (Black Out, Nexus Dawn, Nowhere to Run), and Blade Runner 2099 (when it comes out)
Tier 2: Black Lotus, the Titan comics (Origins, 2019, 2029, 2039, Black Lotus), the Blade Runner Tabletop Roleplaying Game
Tier 3: Blade Runner: Edge of Human, Blade Runner: Replicant Night, Blade Runner: Eye and Talon, The Westwood Studios 1997 video game, and Dust to Dust, the DADoES-based graphic novel
The Original Film
While the thrust of this essay is on the surrounding world of Blade Runner IP, it is worth exploring the original film to some degree.
The “seven versions” oddity (more on that in a moment) alone would be enough to put Blade Runner in a special category of film lore. But the story of the greater Blade Runner IP simply boggles the mind. The Blade Runner IP was complicated even before the movie came out. The term “Blade Runner” was originally used by Alan E. Nourse as the title for his 1974 science fiction novel. It was also used by William S. Burroughs for his film treatment of Nourse’s book, which eventually became its own novel, Blade Runner (a movie). And of course Blade Runner is based on the Philip K. Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
So at this point, we have a movie (Blade Runner) based loosely on a book (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) but named after a different book (the Nourse novel), which also had its own film treatment (but no film), which became its own book (the Burroughs book).
The history of the production of Blade Runner is wild and well-reported. Anyone truly interested should read Paul M. Sammon’s definitive work, Future Noir. Perhaps most legendary is the fact there have been seven different versions of the film. They are:
- Workprint prototype (1982)
- San Diego sneak preview (1982)
- US theatrical release (1982)
- International theatrical release (1982)
- US broadcast version (1986)
- The Director’s Cut (1992)
- The Final Cut (2007)
Of those, I think the San Diego sneak preview version is the only one I haven’t seen. (I’m counting the limited 1991³ run at the NuArt in Los Angeles as the Workprint version).⁴
With that quick look at the background of the original film taken care of, let’s look and see where the IP goes from there.
Video Games⁵
In 1985 a video game was released by CRL Group for the Commodore 64 based on… the Vangelis soundtrack for the movie because the CRL Group didn’t have the license for a film tie-in.
Go ahead and read that again.
Yep, the first thing out of the block was an official unofficial bootleg. Here’s the plot to this “video game interpretation of the film score” from Wikipedia:
The plot of the game is similar to the associated movie. Replidroids (sic for replicants), designed for use in space, have been banned from Earth following a revolt on a colony. The role of eliminating any replidroids found on earth is given to a unit of bounty hunters.
Reviews of the game were, somewhat predictably, less than enthusiastic. Some selections:
“…lacking in variety and did not feel like a finished product.”
“…the graphics were poor and the game disappointing.”
“…lazily executed and unsatisfying.”
Ok, you get the idea. Now, it’s important to remember that at this time, Blade Runner was not exactly a hit movie, and franchise IP marketing was still relatively unsophisticated (with the noted exceptions of properties like Star Wars and Planet of the Apes). But we were in the post-Star Wars era and it’s not like these ideas were wholly foreign. I think what we have here, and this will be a trend, is that the stewards of the Blade Runner IP were naive or inexperienced, and as a result, you get what you get.
By contrast, the 1997 Blade Runner video game from Westwood Studios was a well-received ‘sidequel,’ incorporating aspects of the original film, while also striking out to tell its own story.
Despite the somewhat fumbled enhanced edition release in 2022⁶, this still goes down as one of the better-realized pieces of Blade Runner IP.
A little more than 20 years later, Blade Runner: Revelations, a VR game was released. I think its relative lack of cultural or critical awareness is due as much to the fact that VR games still aren’t particularly popular and widespread, as to anything to do with the game itself.
The Soundtrack
The original film’s soundtrack, composed and performed by Greek artist Vangelis, is an integral part of the film and is widely acknowledged as a classic of the art form. In the 80s, movie soundtracks were very much a thing, with original songs often topping the pop charts. While dreamy jazz-synth wasn’t going to threaten Michael Jackson, it certainly stands to reason that the Blade Runner soundtrack would be a popular release. Yet, here’s another time the Blade Runner IP stumbled. Again, from Wikipedia:
The official release of the soundtrack was delayed for over a decade. The first 1994 release omitted much of the film’s score and included compositions not used in the film. A 25th anniversary edition released in 2007 included further unreleased material and a disc of new music inspired by the film. Various bootleg recordings containing more comprehensive versions of the score, as well as superior sound quality to the original 1994 release, have widely circulated.
For a great history and breakdown of the mythology and reality of the Vangelis Blade Runner soundtrack, check out this article on The Vinyl Factory from Nick Soulsby.
The Sequel(?) Novels
We skip now to 1994. By this time Blade Runner had received a critical re-evaluation and the film’s cult following (having been raised on VHS copies, the iconic Criterion Collection laserdisc, and the occasional art house theatrical runs) had brought much attention to the IP. Surely this played some part in the Philip K. Dick Trust’s decision to commission not one, not two, but three sequels to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Written by accomplished science fiction author K.W. Jeter (who was a friend of PKD) the books were… odd. They follow neither DaDoES? nor the film continuity, but rather blend a sort of mishmash of both, while also venturing into completely new territory. In general, the fan reception, from what I’ve seen online, is lukewarm at best. I’ve read all three novels (Edge of Human (1994), Replicant Night (1996), and Eye and Talon (2000) and find them to be uneven. But you know what, so were most of Dick’s works, so whataya going to do?
At their best, the books contain nuggets of weirdness that are akin to Dick’s works. But they fail to capture the mood of Scott’s film. I would be hard-pressed to count the number of times a character said something to the effect of “you just don’t see it, do you?” to another character before going on an exposition-heavy recounting of things we (the reader) knew a long time ago.
40+ years, three books. By contrast, the Alien franchise has had nearly 30 extended universe books⁷. I’ve read two of those (The Cold Forge and Into Charybdis, both written by Alex White) and found both to be well-written, entertaining, and true to the franchise tone (which, at this point is led more by the James Cameron sequel, Aliens, than by Scott’s original). Heck the Alien franchise is such a machine that they’ve produced a graphic novel, audio book, and novelization⁸ of William Gibson’s unused Alien³ script
Also worth noting, one of the recent Alien novels, Alien: Colony War, has a tie-in to the Free League Alien Role Playing game. As both Alien and Blade Runner share licensing partners (Titan for books [non-fiction up to this point in the case of Blade Runner] & Free League for TTRPG), will we possibly see something similar for Blade Runner down the road?
I spoke with Tomas Harenstam, CEO of Free League and Lead Designer for both the Alien and Blade Runner TTRPGs, and he said that while nothing was currently planned he’d be open to something like that.
I would love to see novels set in the Blade Runner universe. With a 50-year jump from Blade Runner 2049 to the upcoming Blade Runner 2099 TV show, there’s plenty of space to fill.
The Sequel Prequel Trilogy
Prior to the release of Blade Runner 2049 three shorts were dropped to help build context for the story. These shorts were called Blade Runner Black Out 2022, 2036: Nexus Dawn, and 2048: Nowhere to Run.
I thought all three were interesting, if imperfect. I felt the art style for Black Out 2022 worked better for the Blade Runner universe than that used for Black Lotus. I thought Dave Bautista was great in Blade Runner 2049 but was less convincing in Nowhere to Run. Nexus Dawn is probably the most compelling of the three, with a special shoutout to actor Benedict Wong⁹. With his appearance in Nexus Dawn, I believe he is the only actor to appear in the Alien and Blade Runner franchises.
Ultimately this was a promising amuse-bouche in preparation for the long-awaited sequel to the original film.
Blade Runner 2049
Three decades after the original movie, we received a sequel, Blade Runner 2049. If you had asked me which director I would want to helm such a film, it would be a coin flip between Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve. I’m also a Ryan Gosling fan, so I was pretty hyped for the film. Also, with cinematographer Roger Deakins, the best in the business, and music by Hans Zimmer along with a really solid cast (Edward James Olmos, David Dastmalchian, Robin Wright, Jared Leto, Mackenzie Davis, Dave Bautista, Wood Harris, Ana de Armas), Villeneuve had assembled a great team.
The film is visually stunning, and apart from Harrison Ford, the acting is great. What I think sets it apart from most other movies, and much of the other Blade Runner IP, is that Villeneuve was clearly committed to executing a similar level of detail as the original. Every scene is so carefully crafted and thought out.
There are a number of iconic moments in the film, from the Baseline test and Luv calling in missile strikes while having her nails done, to Joi merging with Mariette and Officer K waiting quietly while Sapper Morton comes inside to tend to his garlic.
Perhaps not a perfect film (the final third drags a little) but certainly a worthy successor. If the original movie is an A+, this is pretty close to an A-. Can’t ask for much more than that from a sequel.
The Comics
Marvel
In 1982, Marvel released Marvel Comics Super Special: Blade Runner. Not exactly a direct adaptation of the movie, rather the comic followed the events of the film but also attempted to fill in gaps in the script. I don’t have a copy of this issue, so I can’t speak directly to the attempts to fill in the gaps, but that sounds like something that will create more questions than answers. But hey, maybe it was well done. What was the critical reception like?
According to author Lawrence Raw, “the Marvel adaptation was poorly received and widely ridiculed as having bad writing and misquoted lines of dialogue from the film script.”
Oh.
Boom! Studios
In 2010, Boom! Studios released Dust to Dust, a prequel to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The eight-issue limited series received reasonably good reviews. I found the artwork to be average to below average at times. The story was serviceable but ultimately unremarkable.
Titan Comics
In 2019, Titan Comics began its rather prolific run as the home of Blade Runner comics with Blade Runner 2019. That was quickly followed by Blade Runner 2029, and Blade Runner: Origins. Current series from Titan include Blade Runner 2039 and Blade Runner: Black Lotus.
First, let me tip my cap to Titan Comics for delivering a steady stream of Blade Runner stories. The Alien franchise had a long and well-respected run from Dark Horse Comics and is currently with Marvel (to mixed reviews), so Titan have some catching up to do. I’m not sure if I would have done the 10-year jump formula, but it’s fine I suppose.
I find the writing, art, and characters in the Titan Comics to be… fine? If I wasn’t a Blade Runner completist would I be reading them? Probably not. If there wasn’t a history of Blade Runner content that I was familiar (obsessed) with, and this was an original series, would I read it? Unlikely. But the comic book format is certainly one that is ideally suited to Blade Runner.
I think the issue I have with the comics (whether from Boom! or Titan) is that they fail to utilize the medium to take advantage of what makes Blade Runner so memorable. Blade Runner comics should be about mood, detail, and deep character development.
Take a look at these panels (apologies for the photo quality), first from Boom!’s Dust to Dust. What exactly is the background behind him? This looks like a preliminary rough draft or sketch of what the final panel will look like.
The “issue break” pages of the collected edition do have some great-looking artwork, however:
Now, look at this “street scene” from Titan’s BR 2029. Does this feel like “Blade Runner” to you? The colors look reminiscent of Moebius to me. Where’s the detail? Why doesn’t the giant video screen look like a video screen? That’s one of the more iconic elements of the Blade Runner franchise.
Let’s compare this to the artwork of Tomm Coker from The Black Monday Murders¹⁰. Not sci-fi, but supernatural noir which isn’t too far off tonally from Blade Runner. Serious Roy Batty vibes here:
Or look at the detail in this panel. So many things to focus on.
It would be easy to imagine a comic set in the Blade Runner universe that is mostly black and white — paying homage to the movie’s Film Noir heritage. Then utilize color to hit the neon-charged streets of LA. But instead, we get muted colors, character design that is simplistic, and books that rely on fight scenes that aren’t particularly dynamic.
The Anime: Black Lotus
While not a big anime fan, I was excited to hear about Blade Runner Black Lotus and looked forward to watching it. There are of course numerous animation styles and personal preference plays a large role in determining one's feelings regarding the creation. But that said, certain styles probably make more sense than others for a property like Blade Runner. For me, a more classic style reminiscent of Akira or Ghost in the Shell (both of which count Blade Runner as an influence) would have made more sense than the computer-generated style that was ultimately chosen.
I’m sure economics played a part in the decision, but again, this is the Blade Runner IP, it calls for decisions to be artistically driven, not financially.
In terms of the story, it was for the most part… ok? I get the sense that the creators of Blade Runner stories all feel the need to expand the world and explore new characters and ideas. To some degree that’s ok, but at the same time, there is so much space left within the two movies, that going as far afield as Black Lotus goes seems unnecessary.
Some of the characters were interesting and had real promise, but the lead character, Elle, fell flat for me. I just couldn’t get emotionally invested in her story. Once again, it felt like an opportunity squandered. Critical reception was positive, but more in the pass-fail sense than in terms of any type of distinction.
Television
Blade Runner 2099
After some early news about the possibility of a TV show, in September of 2022, it was confirmed that Blade Runner 2099 would go into production. How do I feel about this? Mixed feelings to be honest. Ridley Scott, who is attached to this project, most recently brought Raised By Wolves to TV for Apple+. While that show was strong visually, I couldn’t finish the first season, the writing and acting were just not compelling enough for me.
Silka Luisa is attached as writer/showrunner and I must say I’m not familiar with her previous works. She wrote one episode of the Halo TV show — which, while it was renewed by Paramount+ for a second season, was not particularly well reviewed. She also adapted for TV and wrote multiple episodes of Shining Girls, which also aired on Apple+. That may be worth checking out to get a sense of what Luisa is all about. I hope she’s great!
By comparison, the upcoming Alien TV show (which Ridley Scott is also involved with) has Noah Hawley as writer/showrunner. Hawley has previously done the Fargo TV show, as well as Legion, both of which have been critically acclaimed.
My main concern is in setting the show 80 years after the original movie. That’s an incredibly long time in the future. So much will have changed (architecture, fashion, environment, politics, technology…) that it’s hard to imagine how it will resemble the original. It’s also hard to believe that society’s feelings about replicants would be the same, so, really, what are we talking about here?
I’m sure it’s possible to make a great show, but I have concerns. Blade Runner isn’t just a story about how humans react to replicants, it’s about the specific way humans react to replicants. Blade Runner is not, or should not be, about humans and replicants interacting like a buddy cop movie.
Blade Runner: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game
Early in 2022 Free League launched a Kickstarter for a Blade Runner TTRPG. It absolutely crushed its goal, and hit numerous stretch goals, ultimately collecting US$1.5M+ from more than 15,000 backers. A tremendous success. In late 2022 the game made it into the hands of backers (including myself) and I must say, the production quality is extremely high. They didn’t cut corners in terms of material quality and the artwork is exceptional. It eschews the hyper-detail that I think Blade Runner calls for, yet evokes the noir mood so well that I can overlook that.
I think for someone who is somewhat familiar with Blade Runner, the game will scratch the itch (to once again paraphrase replicant Leon Kowalski), but hardcore fans will have their quibbles (as a review of the Free League online forums reveals).
I do want to give a tip of the hat to game writer Joe LeFavi. The game’s rulebook references Niander Wallace’s Dix Huit inner circle. This is a reference to the exclusive Dix Huit clearance code at Tyrell Corporation, which is mentioned in the screenplay dated 2–23–1981, but to my knowledge is not actually mentioned in any version of the Blade Runner film that was released.
The roleplaying game is another example of where the Blade Runner and Alien franchises once again bump into each other, as Free League also produces a very fine Alien TTRPG, and has also created a number of ancillary products. I’m hopeful that Free League will follow the same pattern with Blade Runner and we can look forward to more Blade Runner campaigns and expanded material as well. In my recent conversation with Free League CEO Tomas Harenstam, he indicated that it’s likely we’ll see more Blade Runner products, perhaps as early as later in 2023.
The Timeline
Finally, I thought it might be interesting, and useful, to put together a timeline of all the Blade Runner IP based on their in-world chronological order. Because the franchise is so widespread and has been handled by so many, I’m not sure if continuity is even possible.
2009 — Blade Runner Origins (comic)
Pre-2019 — Dust to Dust (comic)
2019 — Blade Runner (film)
2019 — Blade Runner 2019 (comic)
2020 — Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human (novel)
~2020 — Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night (novel)
~2020/1 — Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon (novel)
2022 — Blade Runner Black Out 2022 (short film)
2029 — Blade Runner 2029 (comic)
2032 — Blade Runner: Black Lotus (anime)
2032 — Blade Runner: Black Lotus (comic)
2036 — 2036 Nexus Dawn (short film)
2037 — Blade Runner TTRPG (game)
2039 — Blade Runner 2039 (comic)
2048 — 2048 Nowhere to Run (short film)
2049 — Blade Runner 2049 (film)
2099 — Blade Runner 2099 (Television)
This essay has positively mushroomed into something larger (and longer) than I anticipated. If you’ve read this long, I appreciate you. I’m hoping to have more Blade Runner-related material throughout this year, so if this is your jam, stay tuned.
Notes
- ¹Ok, technically not true. It started well before the film, as I’ll get into in this essay.
- ²Star Wars was number one. Harrison Ford appears in four of the top 20. Ridley Scott is responsible for two of the top 10.
- ³This version of the film played briefly at the Fairfax theater in 1990 before the famous NuArt (and Castro in San Francisco) runs.
- ⁴This Los Angeles Times article gives a great rundown on the history of the original film if you don’t have time for Future Noir.
- ⁵Despite growing up during the early years of home video games, I was never a huge player, and haven’t played any of the Blade Runner video games.
- ⁶Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition was released on June 23, 2022. However, the game was met with complaints from players that the improved graphics were actually worse than the original game. Metacritic listed Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition as the tenth-worst game of 2022.
- ⁷The core extended universe Alien books have been published by Bantam, DH Press, and Titan Books
- ⁸The novel version of Gibson’s Alien³ script is actually written by another terrific cyberpunk author, Pat Cadigan
- ⁹He’s also appeared in the Marvel MCU, Annihilation, Arrival, and Sunshine, making him a genre icon.
- ¹⁰I highly recommend The Black Monday Murders. The artwork is fantastic, and Jonathan Hickman’s story is one of the best I’ve read, in any medium.
