'Blade Runner: Black Lotus': Release Date, Cast, Trailer and Plot
The Blade Runner franchise is set to have another exciting addition to its universe, in the form of anime series Black Lotus.
Black Lotus is a forthcoming Crunchyroll and Adult Swim original series set in the year 2032, after the events of Ridley Scott's 1982 classic but before Denis Villeneuve's sequel.
The anime is produced by Alcon Entertainment and Sola Digital Arts animation studio, with Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe serving as creative producer on the show.
And during the Virtual Crunchyroll Expo on Thursday, the streaming platform gave viewers a closer look at their forthcoming sci-fi show, revealing a new key visual and also the first look at the series' opening.
When is Blade Runner: Black Lotus out?
Blade Runner: Black Lotus will air later this year on both Crunchyroll and Adult Swim, though neither has revealed an exact release date yet.
The series will be available to stream in Japanese with subtitles in a variety of languages including English on Crunchyroll.
Meanwhile, Adult Swim will air the English-dubbed version of the show on Toonami, the network's anime programming block.
The show will have 13 episodes, directed by Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama.
Who will star in Blade Runner: Black Lotus?
The English voice cast stars Jessica Henwick, Will Yun Lee, Samira Wiley, Brian Cox, Wes Bentley, Josh Duhamel, Peyton List, Stephen Root, Barkhad Abdi, Gregg Henry, Henry Czerny, and Jason Spisak.
While the Japanese voice cast includes Arisa Shida, Shinshu Fuji, Takako Honda, Taiten Kusunoki, Yoshiko Sakakibara, Hochu Otsuka, Takayuki Kinba, Masane Tsukayama, Akio Nojima, and Kazuki Yao.
Henwick and Shida voice lead character Elle, a female replicant who has been created for a secret and unknown purpose.
What will happen in Blade Runner: Black Lotus?
The series is based in Los Angeles in 2032, and follows a young woman who wakes up with amnesia but learns she possesses deadly skills.
She learns the clues to her identity are hidden away in a locked data device, and a tattoo of a black lotus is also a hint to her origins.
The woman embarks on a journey to put together the pieces of her mysterious past, and she tries to hunt down the people responsible for her lost identity.
Is there a trailer for Blade Runner: Black Lotus?
Yes, Adult Swim revealed an English-language trailer for the series that teased what was to come in the sci-fi series.
Leaning on the main character's search for her identity, it finds her fighting goons and digging deeper into the seedy underworld of Los Angeles to discover the truth.
The trailer also showed the stunning animation featured in the series, and the gritty atmosphere of the original Blade Runner has clearly been replicated in the anime.
Blade Runner: Black Lotus is set to be released on Crunchyroll and Funimation later this year.
