What to watch before Blade Runner 2099

Two films, three shorts and an animated series, spread across eighty years of one timeline.

Blade Runner 2099 is out on 25 November 2026.

Updated 28 August 2026 · 6 titles tracked

Blade Runner 2099 is set fifty years after Blade Runner 2049, which is itself thirty years after the original. The series sits at the far end of a timeline that already runs eighty years.

Two films are the real requirement. Everything else on this list is optional and most of it takes half an hour in total.

The catch-up list, in story order

Story order rather than release order, because the shorts were made to sit between the films.

Open the full Blade Runner list

The two films

Blade Runner (1982) is set in 2019 and Blade Runner 2049 thirty years after it. Watch the Final Cut of the first if you get to choose, which is the version without the narration and the bolted-on ending.

2049 is the one that matters most here, because 2099 follows from the world that film leaves behind rather than from the original’s.

The three shorts, and whether they earn their half hour

All three were commissioned to fill the thirty-year gap before 2049. Black Out 2022 covers the blackout that erased the world’s records; 2036: Nexus Dawn has Wallace arguing for the replicant ban to be lifted; 2048: Nowhere to Run introduces Sapper Morton a year before 2049 opens on him.

Nowhere to Run is the one that pays off immediately, since the first scene of 2049 is its direct consequence. The other two are context rather than setup.

Black Lotus

Blade Runner: Black Lotus is a thirteen-episode animated series set in 2032, between the blackout and the recovery. It is the largest optional piece here and the one furthest from what 2099 is doing.

The shortest honest answer

Watch 2049. If you have never seen the original, watch that first, because 2049 assumes it throughout and withholds most of its own payoff otherwise. The rest can wait until you want more of it.

Common questions

Do I need to watch both Blade Runner films first?

Blade Runner 2049 is the one that matters, and it assumes the 1982 film throughout. Watch both if you can.

Are the Blade Runner shorts required?

No. They run about half an hour between them and fill the gap before 2049. Nowhere to Run is the only one that connects directly.

Is Black Lotus required?

No. It is an animated series set in 2032 and nothing in it leads into 2099.

How far apart are the Blade Runner stories?

The original is set in 2019, 2049 is thirty years after it, and the series is fifty years after that.