May 9, 2024
SINGAPORE – Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh has found her next starring role in Blade Runner 2099, a limited series for Prime Video.
According to Variety, the 61-year-old Oscar winner will play the lead in the sci-fi show, a sequel to both the original Blade Runner film in 1982 and its 2017 follow-up Blade Runner 2049.
The American entertainment publication reported that the Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) star will play a character named Olwen, described as “a replicant near the end of her life”.
While plot details are being kept under wraps, it is evident that Blade Runner 2099 will expand the sci-fi franchise based on Philip K. Dick’s seminal 1968 dystopian novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, which kicked off with director Ridley Scott’s classic Blade Runner.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world where Earth’s life has been greatly damaged by a nuclear global war, that film follows former “blade runner” Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a police officer who specialises in tracking down synthetic humanoids called “replicants” and executing them.
Blade Runner 2049 revolves around Canadian actor Ryan Gosling’s K, a blade runner searching for Deckard, who has been missing for over three decades.
Production of Blade Runner 2099 has started following a delay of nearly a year due to the double Hollywood labour strikes in 2023, reported Deadline. The American film portal added that the series was to be shot in Belfast, but production relocated to Prague following the work stoppage.
Yeoh, who recently turned heads at the Met Gala in New York wearing an aluminium foil-inspired Balenciaga gown, will reprise her role as Emperor Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Section 31. The TV movie is set for a 2025 release on the streaming platform Paramount+.
She will next be seen showing off her vocal chops in Wicked as antagonist Madame Morrible, a witch and the headmistress of Crage Hall at Shiz University. Part One of the film adaptation of the acclaimed musical will open in Singapore cinemas on Nov 28, while the second part comes out in 2025.
Yeoh has also joined Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington as a cast member of director James Cameron’s ambitious Avatar sci-fi movie sequels, playing scientist Karina Mogue. Avatar 3, 4 and 5 will be released in 2025, 2029 and 2031 respectively.