Anyone expecting Blade Runner 2099 to resolve the cliffhangers of Blade Runner 2049 should recalibrate. The showrunner of the upcoming Prime Video series says the events of the 2017 film are "not directly connected" to the show, GamesRadar+ reports.

The series, set 50 years after 2049 on the franchise timeline, is designed to stand alone rather than serve as a direct continuation. That means the fallout from the film — the replicant resistance, the questions left hanging around its central characters — isn't the show's narrative engine. Instead, 2099 appears positioned to use the Blade Runner universe as a setting while telling its own story within it.

It's a defensible play for a streaming series: 2049 earned critical acclaim but underperformed at the box office, and tethering a show too tightly to its plot threads would raise the barrier to entry for new viewers. A standalone approach lets Prime Video court franchise devotees and newcomers alike — though longtime fans hoping for direct answers from the film will have to keep waiting.