Blade Runner 2: Harrison Ford confirmed to star, but Ridley Scott will not direct

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey

Get our The Life Cinematic email for free

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Harrison Ford will return to star in the sequel to Blade Runner, Ridley Scott has confirmed.

The director said fans can “expect to see Harrison Ford back in the saddle” as the futuristic gumshoe Rick Deckard in the follow-up to the Eighties film.

“Harrison is very much part of this one, but really it’s about finding him; he comes in in the third act,” Scott told Variety.

However, the director said he would not return to helm the film, which he helped to develop with the film’s original co-screenwriter Hampton Fancher.

Instead, Scott will produce the movie, which he said should begin filming next year.

It is thought the sequel will see new figures set out in search of the original movie’s central protagonist.

Speaking about the script, Scott said: “We talked at length about what it could be, and came up with a pretty strong three-act storyline, and it all makes sense in terms of how it relates to the first one.”

The original science fiction film was nominated for two Oscars when it was released in 1982.

Based on Philip K Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the film was not a box office hit on its release but has since been lauded as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time.