LOS ANGELES • Warner Bros released the official full-length trailer for long-anticipated science-fiction sequel Blade Runner 2049 on Monday at an event in Los Angeles with stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford.

Denis Villeneuve's follow-up, set some 30 years after the events of cult classic Blade Runner (1982), sees Ford reprise his role from Ridley Scott's original movie as Rick Deckard, a Los Angeles cop who hunts rogue androids.

"The character is woven into the story in a way that intrigued me," said Ford, 74, at a discussion panel at the Imax headquarters.

"There's a very strong emotional context... I think it's interesting to develop a character after a period of time, to revisit a character."

Gosling, 36, leads a cast of newcomers including Robin Wright and Jared Leto.

The footage was praised by movie websites, which noted Villeneuve's success in emulating the gritty, dust-covered cinematography of the original.

But it reveals nothing of the plot beyond the official studio publicity, which says a new "blade runner", Los Angeles Police Department Officer K (Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what is left of society into chaos.

K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Deckard, who has been missing for 30 years.

The trailer follows an early teaser in December and more extensive footage shown at CinemaCon, the Las Vegas convention for theatre operators, in March.

Gosling told the panel: "The first film made me question what it means to be a human being. It made me question my ability to recognise the hero from the villain."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE