Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh has joined the cast of Amazon Prime Video’s Blade Runner 2099 sequel series, currently filming in Prague.
Already a veteran of action and science fiction genres, Oscar-winning actor Michelle Yeoh has joined the cast of Amazon Prime Video’s limited TV series, Blade Runner 2099.
Currently, that’s about all we know. Even Deadline, which first published the news, doesn’t know anything useful about the character Yeoh will play or what the series will be about. Sorry about that.
The series has been in development for quite a while, though, given that it’s a sequel to 2017’s Blade Runner 2049 (itself a sequel to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner), and there’s still nothing to watch roughly seven years on.
Last year’s Hollywood strikes haven’t helped matters. At one point, Amazon Studios was gearing up for production in Northern Ireland, with filming set to begin at studios in Belfast in 2023. That delay in production, however, prompted Amazon to decamp to Prague. Filming finally got underway in April.
At one stage, Jodie Comer was attached to the series, though reports from last May then suggested she was thoroughly detached. The production delays have also seen Blade Runner 2099 change directors, with an exiting Jeremy Podeswa replaced in February by Jonathan van Tulleken, who recently made the very good indeed FX series, Shōgun.
The Michelle Yeoh announcement is quite a coup, though. A former Hong Kong action star (check out her quite terrifying car stunt in Jackie Chan’s Police Story 3: Supercop), Yeoh won an Oscar for her performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once, and has a major role in TV’s Star Trek: Discovery as well as the upcoming Star Trek: Section 31 TV movie. Her charisma could be just what Blade Runner 2099 needs.
More as we get it.
