While Prime Video is returning to the world of replicants with Blade Runner 2099 later this year, Apple TV’s hit sci-fi cyberpunk series Murderbot is closer to Ridley Scott’s original movie. As the November 25 release date of Blade Runner 2099 steadily approaches, Prime Video has revealed some new information about the upcoming series. Thanks to the trailer for Blade Runner 2099, we have an idea for the show’s main cast and that this will be a very different kind of story.
As we now know, Blade Runner 2099 is abandoning the franchise’s original premise. In the original film and Blade Runner 2049, Blade Runners hunted down replicants, artificial humans who are treated as second-class citizens and often forced to perform slave labor. In 2099, however, the roles have been reversed, and replicants are now dominant over humanity. As Hunter Schafer’s character explains, humanity lost the “war” with replicants and are being replaced.
While that premise does sound like it would make for a fascinating show, and it does seem like a natural progression of the way replicants’ relationship to humanity has progressed in Blade Runner‘s history, it’s also the exact opposite of the original film’s premise. The replicants have taken on the role of the oppressor after two films depicting them as the oppressed. As Blade Runner 2099 moves away from its roots, however, Apple TV’s Murderbot should feel much more familiar to fans of the franchise.
Murderbot Is Closer To The Original Blade Runner’s Concept Than 2099 Is
In stark contrast to Blade Runner 2099‘s plan to paint replicants as the oppressive ruling class, Apple TV’s Murderbot is much more closely aligned with Ridley Scott’s original movie. Based on the books by Martha Wells, Murderbot follows Murderbot, an android known as a SecUnit who is owned as property and meant to protect the members of PreservationAux from the hostile alien planet they are exploring.
Murderbot, however, hides a secret: it hacked its governor module, a chip meant to make it perfectly obedient to its owners, and has to hide its sentience to maintain its newfound freedom. The premise of Murderbot is almost exactly the same as the original Blade Runner: replicants and SecUnits are both artificial humans capable of sentient thought, but they have to hide themselves away for fear of being destroyed by their oppressive human owners.
Because its premise is so similar to Blade Runner, Murderbot has a lot of the same qualities of the earlier movie. Murderbot’s life and freedom hang in the balance of it staying hidden, giving the whole show a lot of tension once PreservationAux quickly finds out that it’s not a normal SecUnit. It has questions of what it means to be human, how we should treat our own creations, and other cyberpunk staples. Basically, Murderbot is Blade Runner if it followed Roy Batty instead of Deckard. Blade Runner 2099 is something completely different.
Blade Runner 2099 Still Has Murderbot Beat In One Key Area
Even though Murderbot is more true to the original Blade Runner‘s notion of androids being second-class, oppressed people, 2099 still has a huge advantage in its corner. Murderbot has a very similar premise to Blade Runner, but it goes about exploring the rights and liberation of artificial life in a very different way. Murderbot is very distinctly comedic; Murderbot itself is socially awkward, it watches cheesy soap operas to calm down, and PreservationAux are a bunch of nerdy scientists.
Blade Runner, on the other hand, has always been known as a dark and moody cyberpunk franchise. Both the movies were almost oppressively grim and philosophical, and there are almost no jokes in them at all. Blade Runner 2099 is almost certainly going to maintain that grounded and depressing tone, even as it switches the roles of humans and replicants. It may have a different premise, but Blade Runner 2099 will still feel just like Blade Runner.
Murderbot season 2 doesn’t have an official release date yet, but it is expected to premiere on Apple TV in 2027.
Murderbot isn’t completely out of the running, however. Murderbot season 1 was undeniably comedic and a bit goofy, and the books are as well, but Murderbot season 2 should be much darker in tone and more aligned with Blade Runner. The subsequent books get much more serious and grounded as they deal with Murderbot trying to evade capture and navigate the corporate dystopia it lives in. Blade Runner 2099 may be more cyberpunk right now, but Murderbot is going to mature in the future.