Blade Runner: Black Lotus draws from the elaborate backstory established in previous Blade Runner installments, but where does it fit in the franchise’s timeline? Unlike Ridley Scott’s original 1982 film starring Harrison Ford and Denis Villeneuve’s 2017 Blade Runner sequel starring Ryan Gosling and Ford, the upcoming title serves as an anime TV series. Black Lotus‘ trailer premiered at San Diego Comic-Con 2021, and a panel by the creative team revealed more details about the anime.
Black Lotus is produced by Alcon Entertainment, Adult Swim, and Crunchyroll, and it’s the first anime series canonically set in the Blade Runner universe, following three anime shorts that accompanied Blade Runner 2049. Like every Blade Runner project, Black Lotus is adapted from the Philip K. Dick sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Black Lotus stars Jessica Yu Li Henwick as Elle, a female Replicant heroine. She’s joined by Stephen Root as LAPD Police Chief Earl Grant (a character from Blade Runner 1982), Brian Cox as Wallace Corporation CEO Niander Wallace, Sr., and Wes Bentley as his son, Niander Wallace, Jr. (a role played by Jared Leto in Blade Runner 2049).
The original Blade Runner film was set in 2019 and followed LAPD Detective Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who fell in love with a Nexus 6 Replicant named Rachael (Sean Young). They escaped Los Angeles at the end of the film before Blade Runner 2049, told through the eyes of a Replicant named K (Ryan Gosling), picked up what happened to Deckard and Rachael 30 years later. Blade Runner 2049 also filled in the apocalyptic events of the three decades in between the two films, and that dangerous era is when Blade Runner: Black Lotus is set.
Blade Runner’s Timeline Explained
In Blade Runner, a rogue Replicant named Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) murdered Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), CEO of the Tyrell Corporation and the creator of the Nexus Replicants. 3 years later, in 2022, an EMP of unknown origin detonates over the West Coast. Known as the Blackout, the cataclysmic event wiped out nearly all electronic data. Cities were shut down, financial markets crashed, and food supplies became dire. The wealthy escaped to the Offworld Colonies, and everyone else was left behind. Replicants were blamed for the Blackout, and a Replicant Prohibition became law in 2023.
However, Niander Wallace of the Wallace Corporation pioneered advancements in genetically modified food and shared his patents for free, which ended the global crisis. In 2028, Wallace acquired the Tyrell Corporation, and he improved the Replicants’ design, making them more compliant. In 2036, Prohibition was repealed, and Wallace introduced his perfect androids, the Nexus 9. By the early 2040s, the LAPD bolstered its existing Blade Runner units and used Nexus 9s (like K) to hunt down and retire the remaining rogue Nexus 6 and 8 Replicants.
In Blade Runner 2049, K (and Wallace) discovered that Rachael was the first Replicant who was able to conceive a child, which Wallace saw as the key to building a new, disposable race of Replicants to serve and expand the Offworld Colonies. Rachael died in childbirth, and Deckard’s daughter was hidden away; she eventually grew up to become Dr. Ana Stelline (Carla Juri).
Where Black Lotus Fits In Blade Runner’s Timeline
Blade Runner: Black Lotus is set in 2032 after Niander Wallace acquired the Tyrell Corporation and began developing improved Replicants, leading to the Nexus 9, but before Replicant Prohibition is repealed in 2036. Black Lotus’ story is top secret, and the only known detail is that “Elle is a female replicant created for a secret and unknown purpose.”
It’s possible that Jessica Henwick’s heroine, Elle, is one of the first of Wallace’s Nexus 9 Replicants, and she escapes when she comes online. Naturally, Wallace and the authorities, including the LAPD’s Blade Runners, would be on the hunt for the escaped, samurai sword-wielding android, who would likely be hunting for answers about who she is. This would perfectly align Blade Runner: Black Lotus with the prevailing themes of the sci-fi saga.
