Blade Runner Changes Replicants Evolution Timeline

Blade Runner Changes Replicants’ Evolution Timeline

One detail in the background of Blade Runner: Black Lotus suggests a major change to the franchise timeline regarding replicant evolution and the law.

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Blade Runner Changes Replicants Evolution Timeline

Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Blade Runner: Black Lotus episodes 1 & 2.

The first episodes of Blade Runner: Black Lotus reveal a significant change to the franchise’s established timeline regarding replicants’ legal status and evolution. Most of the material bridging the gap between the first Blade Runner movie and Blade Runner 2049 suggested a lengthy period of Prohibition, during which replicants were completely illegal on both Earth and the off-world colonies. However, some background details in the new Blade Runner anime suggest that not only were replicants legal off-world in 2032, but also that they were sold as a customizable status symbol.

In the first Blade Runner movie, which was set in 2019, replicants were illegal on Earth and were largely sold to military organizations and affiliated contractors colonizing outer space. While some specialty replicants were marketed to meet specific needs, the vast majority were soldiers, sex workers, and construction workers. By the time of Blade Runner 2049, Nexus-9 replicants, whose programming rendered them unable to rebel against their human creators, were legally allowed to live on Earth performing those jobs deemed too dangerous for humans. Ironically, only Nexus-9 replicants were allowed to work as Blade Runners, hunting down the last of the free-willed Nexus-8 replicants that were still illegally living on Earth and posing as humans.

However, the first two episodes of Blade Runner: Black Lotus present two pieces of evidence that seem to contradict the established Blade Runner timeline. In Blade Runner: Black Lotus episode 1, “City of Angels,” an amnesiac woman named Elle overhears a blimp advertisement encouraging people to move to the off-world colonies and promising qualified applicants a bonus in the form of “a loyal, trouble-free companion” that is “custom-tailored.” This sounds suspiciously like a description of the Nexus-9 replicant. However, Blade Runner: Black Lotus is set in 2032, four years before the Nexus-9 would be publicly released. Later, in Blade Runner: Black Lotus episode 2, “All We Are Not,” Elle discovers that she is a replicant and was part of a group of replicants that were hunted for sport by a group of powerful rich men, again suggesting that replicants were being sold as a custom-made luxury good.

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The idea of loyal replicants being sold as a customizable resource also contradicts 2036: Nexus Dawn, a short film made as a prequel to Blade Runner 2049. Starring Jared Leto as Nexus-9 engineer Niander Wallace, Jr., 2036: Nexus Dawn showed how Wallace was able to convince a group of politicians to end the Prohibition era by proving that his new replicants had no ability to rebel against their human creators. Beyond the question of when the first Nexus-9 replicants were created, Blade Runner: Black Lotus also seems to contradict 2036: Nexus Dawn in regard to the legality of replicants in the off-world colonies in 2036. While it is entirely possible that the rich could afford to buy replicants through the black market, this does not explain how replicants could be sold through a public advertisement in 2032.

The simplest explanation for this apparent contradiction of the Blade Runner timeline is that the Prohibition was suspended off-world sometime between 2022 and the 2032 setting of Blade Runner: Black Lotus, allowing replicants to legally exist within a certain framework as indentured servants or slaves. This would allow replicants to be legally advertised on Earth, if not actually owned. As for the advertising blimp’s claims that their replicants are completely loyal, it seems likely that this may be hype rather than a promise of quality.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/blade-runner-replicants-evolution-ban-timeline-change/

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