Prime Video has cast Michelle Yeoh in a lead role for Blade Runner 2099, the live-action sequel series to Denis Villeneuve’s excellent 2017 film Blade Runner 2049.
Plot details are being kept under wraps, but Variety reports Yeoh will play a character named Olwen, who has been described as “a replicant near the end of her life.”
Blade Runner 2099 will be executive produced by Ridley Scott, director of the original 1982 Blade Runner movie. Silka Luisa (Halo) will serve as the showrunner and executive produce alongside Scott, with Jonathan van Tulleken (Shōgun) directing the first two episodes.
Production on Blade Runner 2099 was originally scheduled to begin in Belfast last summer, but was postponed due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Instead, it relocated to Prague and commenced last month.
Last year, Yeoh picked up the Academy Award for Best Actress with Everything Everywhere All at Once. She has since appeared in Kenneth Branagh’s A Haunting in Venice and two series on streaming services: Netflix’s The Brothers Sun and Disney+’s American Born Chinese.
Next up for the recent Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, she’ll play Madame Morrible in Jon M. Chu’s two-part adaptation of Wicked and star in her own Paramount+ Star Trek movie, Section 31.