Michelle Yeoh plays a dying robot in her new series Blade Runner 2099
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Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh (left, with Hunter Schafer) stars as Olwen, a replicant who is on her last leg of her life, in Blade Runner 2099.
PHOTO: MGM STUDIOS
- Michelle Yeoh stars as Olwen, a dying replicant, in the new sci-fi series Blade Runner 2099 set 50 years after Blade Runner 2049.
- The series explores Olwen's mission to find missing replicants and her struggle with the knowledge of her impending death.
- Blade Runner 2099 will premiere on Prime Video on November 25.
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Michelle Yeoh made an appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con in the US on July 24 to unveil the trailer of her upcoming sci-fi series Blade Runner 2099.
She was accompanied by co-star Hunter Schafer and showrunner Silka Luisa.
Set 50 years after the events of the 2017 movie Blade Runner 2049 – set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a nuclear global war – the Oscar-winning Malaysian actress stars as Olwen, a replicant who is on her last leg of her life. Replicants are synthetic humanoids in the Blade Runner franchise that started with the 1982 Ridley Scott-directed cult classic.
Schafer stars as Cora, a human fugitive masquerading as a blade runner, a police officer who specialises in tracking down replicants and executing them. The pair team up on a mission to track down missing replicants.
The panel footage at Comic-Con showed Olwen interrogating a tortured Cora, hinting at a tense relationship between the characters.
(From left) Showrunner Silka Luisa and actresses Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer at the Blade Runner 2099 panel during San Diego Comic-Con in the US on July 24, 2026.
PHOTO: AFP
In an interview with US publication Entertainment Weekly, Luisa described Olwen: “She is hunting down a group of missing rogue replicants. She’s in the final days of her life, so she knows she has only days left to live because replicants know down to the day when they’re gonna die.”
Luisa added that turning the franchise into a series gives it room to explore the humanity of Yeoh’s character further.
“We have the benefit of television where you have all of the hours that you could want to explore the nuances of this very relatable and human fear of not wanting to die.
“There’s something about the idea that you’re not winding down when you die. You’re spiralling out. There’s a volatility, a danger, and a desperation to it, which I think Michelle really tapped into in her performance,” Luisa said.
Blade Runner 2099 is set to premiere on Prime Video on Nov 25. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
