Warner Bros. certainly seems to be rolling out the red carpet for Blade Runner 2049. At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, they had a fully immersive experience that was the talk of the con (though I didn’t manage to go myself). They also seem to be taking things to the next level in terms of marketing.

In addition to the standard trailers, they’ve committed to releasing three shorts from three separate filmmakers. The first one was called “2036: Nexus Dawn,” and it followed Jared Leto’s character in his attempt to repeal the exhibition on replicants. The second film, “2048: Nowhere to Run,” showed us a bit about Dave Bautista’s character, who we’d only seen in brief trailers up to that point.

If you’ve yet to see those, I highly recommend you check them out by clicking the titles below:

• “2036: Nexus Dawn”
• “2048: Nowhere to Run”

For this last short, it looks like they’ll be pulling out all the stops. Rather than create a standard live-action short film, they’ve hired Shinichiro Watanabe, the acclaimed director of such anime shows as Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and Space Dandy, to tackle the third short, titled Blade “Runner Black Out 2022.”

Here’s what Watanabe had to say about his involvement in this short:

“Blade Runner was definitely the movie that influenced me most as an anime director. I have always wanted to create an anime related to Blade Runner. I was asked to create a story that connects the original Blade Runner with the sequel. I was careful about two things when creating this anime piece. The first was to pay the greatest respect to the original Blade Runner. The second was to make this anime true to the world but not an imitation. This anime sets up the story of Blade Runner 2049.”

Sadly, little is known about the story for this short, but from what we can tell, it will feature a female protagonist. It also looks like it’ll feature a very similar visual aesthetic as the live-action films, despite being an anime. As a fan of anime, Blade Runner, and Shinichiro Watanabe, I’m incredibly excited to see what comes of this.

In the past, we’ve seen the merging of the East and West with projects like The Animatrix and Gotham Knight, but this is potentially the most fitting of the projects, given the style and aesthetic of film.

You’ll be able to check out “Blade Runner Black Out 2022” on September 26 on Crunchyroll.com and their VRV service.

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SOURCE: Crunchyroll