Blade Runner’s Secret Shared Universe Explained

The Blade Runner universe goes beyond its official entries and connects to other major properties like the Alien franchise. The original Ridley Scott movie was a box office disappointment in 1982, with Blade Runner being critiqued as style over substance. Decades later, it’s regarded as a landmark work in the sci-fi genre.

Between 1979’s Alien and Blade Runner, Scott set a template for how filmmakers and artists would visualize the future. The film’s reputation would only grow with the release of 1991’s Blade Runner: Director’s Cut version, which restored several key scenes and dropped Harrison Ford’s dreary voiceover.

Given that it was a box office dud, Blade Runner was a most unlikely candidate to become a franchise – but it happened regardless. An official sequel arrived in 2017 from director Denis Villeneuve, not to mention other offshoots like an upcoming TV series.

Blade Runner is such a totemic piece of sci-fi that it has linked up to other franchises over the years too, in ways both subtle and not so subtle. Since the original hints at a much larger world beyond what audiences are shown, it’s fitting that the property itself opens into a bigger universe.

Blade Runner Is A Franchise In Its Own Right

2049 was worth the decades-long wait

It’s not like Blade Runner, with its dark themes and bleak vision of the future, naturally lent itself to becoming a franchise. Still, the original became so revered in the years following its release that a sequel finally happened with 2017’s Blade Runner 2049, with Ridley Scott passing the reins to Denis Villeneuve.

Despite critical acclaim and certain critics arguing it was just as brilliant as the original, Blade Runner 2049 bombed upon release, grossing over $277 million worldwide on an estimated $185 million budget (via Box Office Mojo). In hindsight, a long, meditative and largely action-free blockbuster probably wasn’t the safest bet, but I’m so glad it got made.

The launch of the sequel also saw the release of three short film spin-offs: 2036: Nexus Dawn gave more backstory on Jared Leto’s villain Niander Wallace, 2048: Nowhere to Run was a prologue for Dave Bautista’s doomed replicant Sapper, and the animated Blade Runner Black Out 2022 gives critical background to 2049.

The animated TV spin-off Blade Runner: Black Lotus only lasted for a single season, despite a largely positive critical reception. The next big entry in the saga will be the live-action Amazon series Blade Runner 2099, starring Hunter Schafer and Michelle Yeoh.

How Blade Runner Connects To The Alien Franchise

Do the Ridley Scott classics link to one another?

On the surface, Blade Runner and Alien have much in common. They both paint dark futures for mankind and feature android characters questioning what it means to be human. In the movies, there are no direct links between them, but in official home media releases, the Alien franchise has referenced Blade Runner.

A 1999 DVD release of Alien mentioned that Tom Skerritt’s Captain Dallas worked for Blade Runner’s Tyrell Corporation in the past. Elsewhere, an easter egg on a special edition release of Prometheus featured Peter Weyland talking about Tyrell in a memo.

Granted, these links are tenuous, since neither franchise has confirmed them in a movie. They could just be read as fun nods for fans of Alien and Blade Runner, but given how big a hand Scott had in creating both worlds, it doesn’t feel like a huge stretch to connect them.

Predator Must Also Be Part Of The Blade Runner Universe

Deckard vs Predator has a nice ring to it

Blade Runner’s connective tissue with Alien is where things get real interesting, since this would also give it links to Predator. While Ridley Scott and other creatives involved with the property would like to pretend the Alien vs Predator films don’t exist, there’s plenty of proof they do.

Related

Every Skull In Predator 2’s Trophy Room

Predator 2 opened up the franchise by including a Xenomorph skull in the trophy room sequence. Here’s a guide to the other skulls shown in the scene.

The Xenomorph skull glimpsed in Predator 2 is what kicked the whole crossover saga into gear, from the movies to comic books and games. 2018’s The Predator features plenty of easter eggs from that franchise, including the Xenomorph tail spear used by Lex (Sanaa Lathan) in Alien vs Predator.

Scott’s prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant seemed to sever those ties, but the upcoming Predator: Badlands confirms that the nefarious Weyland-Yutani definitely exists in that franchise. There have also been suggestions that the two properties could crossover again soon.

Kurt Russell’s Soldier Is A “Sidequel” To Blade Runner

Blade Runner and Soldier were both penned by David Webb Peoples

Kurt Russell’s box office dud Soldier has found a cult following since it arrived in 1998, and has come to be seen as a spin-off of Blade Runner. That’s thanks to an interview Paul W.S. Anderson gave around its release, as Soldier’s director dubbed his film a “sidequel” to Scott’s classic.

The sci-fi actioner contains nods to Blade Runner’s Spinner vehicles, and the reveal that Russell’s Todd fought in the battle of Tannhäuser Gate mentioned in Batty’s haunting “tear in rain” speech. Both films also examine what it means to be human in a grim future world.

Blade Runner Is Connected To Firefly Via Alien

Weyland-Yutani is still hanging around in the world of Firefly

Despite writing the screenplay, Joss Whedon famously hated Alien Resurrection. He felt the 1997 sequel was miscast and botched his story, but as proven with his cult sci-fi series Firefly, he still had love for the property. For instance, in Firefly’s pilot episode, the Weyland-Yutani can be seen clearly on the interface for a gun turret.

Elsewhere, Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Operative in Serenity adopted the company’s motto, as he is trying to “build better worlds” throughout the universe. Again, the links are questionable since they’re in the form of easy-to-miss easter eggs, but if Firefly is connected – even tenuously – to Alien, that means it has Blade Runner ties too.

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  Created by

  Philip K. Dick, Ridley Scott

  First Film

  Blade Runner

  Latest Film

  Blade Runner 2049

  First TV Show

  Blade Runner: Black Lotus

  Latest TV Show

  Blade Runner 2099

  Upcoming TV Shows

  Blade Runner: Black Lotus

  The Blade Runner franchise is a cyberpunk science fiction series originating from the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. The franchise began with the 1982 film Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, which, although initially underappreciated, has since become a seminal work in science fiction cinema. The franchise explores complex themes of humanity, identity, and artificial intelligence, set in a dystopian future where bioengineered beings known as replicants are hunted by special agents called Blade Runners. The franchise has expanded to include a sequel film, several short films, an anime series, upcoming TV series, video games, and comics, all of which continue to explore the rich and complex world of Blade Runner.

  
  

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  Movie(s)

  Alien, Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien: Resurrection (1997), Prometheus (2012), Alien: Covenant (2017), Alien: Romulus (2024)

  Created by

  Ridley Scott

  First Film

  Alien

  Latest Film

  Alien: Romulus

  Upcoming TV Shows

  Alien: Earth

  Cast

  Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Pete Postlethwaite, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dan Hedaya, Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir

  The Alien franchise, which began with Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, is a Sci-Fi series comprised of several horror films, games, and comic books centered on humanity’s encounters with a hostile extraterrestrial species known as Xenomorphs. Characterized by their lethal prowess and capability to reproduce at an alarming rate, these creatures pose a profound threat to human existence. The primary series protagonist, Ellen Ripley, acts as the voice of reason as she seeks to keep the creatures out of the hands of greed-driven corporate scientists.

  
  

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  Created by

  Jim Thomas, John Thomas

  First Film

  Predator

  Cast

  Carl Weathers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kevin Peter Hall, Peter Cullen, Derek Mears, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Walton Goggins, Françoise Yip, Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers

  Movie(s)

  Predator, Predator 2, Predators, Predator, Prey

  Video Game(s)

  Predator: Hunting Grounds, Predator: Concrete Jungle

  Predator is an action sci-fi franchise created by Jim and John Thomas, beginning with the original film released in 1987. The franchise follows a warrior alien race known as the Yautja who travel the far reaches of space looking for worthy prey to hunt, constantly bringing them to Earth due to the sheer amount of conflict harbored on it. The series has spun off into comic books and animated features and has even enjoyed several crossover events via film and video games with the Aliens franchise.

  
  

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  Soldier

  Release Date

  October 23, 1998
  

  Runtime

  99 Minutes

  Director

  Paul W.S. Anderson

  
  

  
  

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  Firefly

  
  

  8/10

  Release Date

  2002 – 2003-00-00

  Network

  FOX