Amazon have finally released images and details for their long and eagerly awaited Lord of the Rings series. They don't disappoint.

Do Amazon have anything for sci-fi fans? Yes and that something is a new live-action Blade Runner series to be executive produced by Ridley Scott.

It's titled Blade Runner 2099, is a followup to Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 film and Silka Luisa has signed on as showrunner.

We're soon to get a taste of her work by way of Apple's upcoming Shining Girls.

It's being made by Alcon Entertainment and Amazon Studios who brought us The Expanse and Ridley's Scott Free Productions who continue to bring us Raised by Wolves.

These are impressive credentials and we're very eager to see what they produce.

But right away we see three really interesting facets to this announcement.

A Nearly Empty Table

Following Netflix's success in the streaming business and HBO's success with Game of Thrones, we've seen an explosion of streaming services and a mad scrabble by them to acquire rights to big fictional properties to make major series.

Paramount have Star Trek and Halo. Disney have Star Wars, Alien and Marvel. Apple has Foundation. Netflix have Lost in Space.

Warner Bros. have DC and had Babylon 5 through CW but have put CW up for sale. That reboot is now on hold.

Amazon haven't announced any plans for Stargate but their purchase of MGM nets them that franchise and they've announced plans to make a Mass Effect series.

Blade Runner was one the few major sci-fi properties which didn't have a big budget live-action series made or in the making.

All that remains is for Amazon to do something with Stargate and in the next decade we may have current, movie quality TV series for nearly every major sci-fi property.

Live-Action v Animated

Perhaps it's not a coincidence that this announcement comes on the heels of the final episode of animated series Blade Runner: Black Lotus.

In Australia it was only available through Crunchyroll so probably not seen by a lot of people here. Including us.

We liked the trailer but never saw it.

A common sentiment we saw expressed in social media was good story but disappointing animation.

Particularly given the phenomenal success of Netflix's animated series Arcane, perhaps Amazon had been considering another animated Blade Runner series but Black Lotus' reception swayed them to live-action.

Dennis was Unavailable

We wonder if Amazon may have initially hoped to also involve Dennis Villeneuve but Dune's success and swift announcement of a sequel film left him with no time for this.

And might also have played into the timing of this announcement.

The Dune sequel having been accounced at the end of October Amazon would have needed some time to arrange alternatives to Denis.

[ Main Image: Blade Runner 2049. Credit: Warner Bros. via IMDb.com. ]

References

Breznican, A. & Robinson, J. (February 10, 2022). Amazon’s Lord of the Rings Series Rises: Inside The Rings of Power. Vanity Fair.

White, P. & Andreeva N. (February 11, 2022). ‘Blade Runner 2099’ Live-Action Sequel Series From Ridley Scott, Silka Luisa & Alcon In Works At Amazon Studios. Deadline.