Famously, Harrison Ford was asked to record numerous voiceover narrations for the original Blade Runner, but nothing like that will happen in Blade Runner 2049. Director Denis Villeneuve says the new film won’t have any voiceover at all.
On Thursday, in an interview published by Collider, Steve Weintraub asked Villeneuve at Comic-Con: “Does *Blade Runner 2049 have narration or no narration?” And it looks like the answer is a solid “no.”
“That’s a joke I made with Harrison Ford when he came to do his ADR,” Villeneuve responded. “It’s not something that would have been welcome and the movie doesn’t need one.”
Contrary to fan-legend, original Blade Runner director Ridley Scott is actually the first person to push for a narration in the film, as it lended the movie a noir-detective quality. However, the often-derided and debated narration that existed in the theatrical release of Blade Runner wasn’t the one Scott or Ford wanted, but instead one mandated by the studio. Still, writing in the book Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, journalist Paul M. Sammon asserts that widespread opposition to the concept of a voiceover in Blade Runner is a “fallacy.”
Blade Runner 2049, in which we won’t have access to anyone’s inner-thoughts, will hit theaters on October 6, 2017.
