Nexus-8

The Tyrell replicants built to live as long as humans.

The Nexus-8 is the replicant line the Tyrell Corporation introduced in 2020, the year after the events of Blade Runner. Where a Nexus-6 has four years, a Nexus-8 has an open-ended lifespan. The line went into mass production and was shut down after the Blackout of 2022.

Lore & Background

Blade Runner Black Out 2022 is set three years after the first film: the new models can live as long as humans do, and unrest follows. A new wave of replicant rebellions ends with rogue Nexus-8s setting off a nuclear weapon above the western United States, and its electromagnetic pulse wipes out most records about replicants. Mass purges and the end of Nexus-8 production follow, the Tyrell Corporation goes bankrupt, and many surviving units go into hiding.

Reader's Guide

In 2049 the remaining Nexus-8s are still hunted by the LAPD's blade runners, who cut out a retired replicant's right eye because a serial number sits below the iris. Sapper Morton, the former army medic K retires at the start of Blade Runner 2049, is a Nexus-8; so are Freysa, who leads the replicant underground, and Iggy and Trixie of Black Out 2022.