Trailer For Adult Swim's BLADE RUNNER: BLACK LOTUS Animated Series
Years ago it was announced that there was a Blade Runner animated series coming titled Blade Runner: Black Lotus. Three years after that announcement, the first trailer was shared during its Comic-Con@Home panel.
The series comes from the same team, who brought us Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, The Animatrix, and Appleseed, and it looks like they are going to deliver a solid cyberpunk Blade Runner series that is set in Los Angeles, 2033.
The story follows a replicant named Elle (Jessica Henwick in the English dub/Arisa Shuda in Japanese), otherwise known as the “Black Lotus,” who is on the run from authorities after escaping her creators. On her journey, Elle uncovers new facets to her identity, including conspiracies about her creation and her expertise in combat with a katana. She will be put to the test as Blade Runners are on a mission of their own to hunt her down.
The series is directed by Shinji Arakmaki and Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2045) and Shinichirō Watanabe, director of Blade Runner: Black Out, has also returned as a producer alongside Alcon Entertainment and animation studio Sola Digital Arts.
During the Comic-Con panel, Aramaki shared that he “wanted to try and realize what he saw and the impact it had on him. There’s so many things that you could do with it… it’s almost like a kid in a candy store.”
Kamiyama added, “It’s somewhat reflected of what might be going on right now. But we wanted to focus on the struggle of the individual against the world. How do you find your own identity in a world like this?”
The the voice cast also includes Will Yum Lee/Shinshu Fuji as Joseph, Samira Wiley/Takako Honda as Alani Davis, Brian Cox/Takaya Hashi as Niander Wallace Sr., Wes Bentley/Takehito Koyasu as Niander Wallace Jr., who was portrayed by Jared Leto in 2049.) The cast also includes Josh Duhamel, Taiten Kusunoki, Peyton List, Yoshiko Sakakibara, Stephen Root, Hochu Otsuka, Barkhad Abdi, Takayuki Kinba, Gregg Henry, Masane Tsukayama, Henry Czerny, Akio Nojima, Jason Spisak and Kazuki Yao.
The 13-episode series will run beginning this fall, via Adult Swim and Crunchyroll. You can watch the trailer and video below.