When it comes to Blade Runner 2049‘s most recent, visually arresting trailer, arguably one of the more tantalizing mysteries in a promo full of them was Jared Leto’s blind replicant creator. “Every civilization was built off the back of a disposable workforce,” he mused, “but I can only make so many…”
Leto’s oddly powerful character, seen comforting a newly-formed replicant, has fuelled heated debate online ever since, and though the 30 Seconds to Mars frontman has developed a reputation for bizarre set stories – set stories that largely spawned from his method acting on David Ayer’s Suicide Squad – his involvement in Blade Runer 2049 has us giddy with excitement. If nothing else, we’re looking forward to those scenes he shares with Ryan Gosling’s LAPD detective, K.
Headed up by Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Dune), 2049 is still incubating in post-production ahead of its planned October release, but when London Evening Standard caught up with Jared Leto to discuss the long-in-development sequel, the star revealed the identity of his blind replicant creator.
I play a character called Neander Wallace — to be honest they had me at the name. I read the script and fell in love with the character. But I don’t think I’m allowed to talk about it — I may have already got in trouble for telling you the name…I can tell you that the experience of making it was one of the highlights of my film career. Throughout my life I’ve always gone back to that film. There was something in it that really touched me and taught me a lot about cinema. There’s a level of craftsmanship and beauty that’s unparalleled.
Heralding the latest (and perhaps greatest?) collaboration between Villeneuve and esteemed DP Roger Deakins (Prisoners, Sicario), Blade Runner 2049 will descend into theaters on October 6th. It’s the second of Ridley Scott’s genre classics to make a comeback in 2017 – the first being the admittedly divisive Alien: Covenant – so we’re intrigued to discover how audiences react to a sequel 30 years in the making.