Shinichiro Watanabe, the director of Cowboy Bebop, has released an anime prequel to the upcoming film Blade Runner 2049.
The 15-minute short film called Blade Runner Black Out 2022 can be watched in full on Crunchyroll – and you can check out the official preview here:
Black Out 2022 is the third and final of three prequel shorts that's set between the original Blade Runner and its upcoming sequel 2049.
It takes place three years after the original movie, when replicants are blamed for an electricity failure in cities across the world following a huge EMP blast. This rise in anti-Replicant feeling eventually leads to a complete ban on Replicant creation.
Meanwhile, the first reactions to Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 have landed, and they're overwhelmingly positive.
Blade Runner 2049 brings back Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard and he apparently called the sequel "the best script I've ever read".
He's joined by Ryan Gosling as Officer K, though Ford's original co-star Rutger Hauer hasn't returned – and is less convinced that the sequel should exist at all.
"It surprises me that they revisited it at all," he told Digital Spy. "It doesn't matter if it's right after or 10 years later... I don't know what that's about.
"I'll see the movie and see what it is. I think I know what [the story] is and I'll be surprised if it wasn't... and it would be probably a nice surprise!"
Blade Runner 2049 is released in UK cinemas on 5 October and US cinemas on 6 October.
