Blade Runner: Black Lotus

The 2021 Adult Swim and Crunchyroll anime set in 2032 Los Angeles, ten years after the Black Out.

Blade Runner: Black Lotus is a neo-noir science fiction animated miniseries in the Blade Runner franchise, co-produced by Adult Swim and Crunchyroll in partnership with Alcon Television Group. It aired from November 14, 2021, to February 6, 2022.

Quick Facts

Genre

Action
Science fiction
Tech noir

Based on

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick

Writer

Eugene Son
Alex de Campi
Brandon Auman
Kenji Kamiyama
Margaret Dunlap

Developer

Kenji Kamiyama, Shinji Aramaki

Composer

Michael Hodges, Gerald Trottman

Opening theme

"Feel You Now" by Alessia Cara

Country

United States; Japan

Language

English; Japanese

Facts from the source article.

Background

Black Lotus takes place in Los Angeles in 2032, ten years into the aftermath of Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 but before 2036: Nexus Dawn, and centers on a female replicant protagonist, Elle, created for a secret purpose, while also including "familiar" characters from the Blade Runner universe such as Niander Wallace Sr., founder and CEO of the Wallace Corporation, and his scientist son Niander Wallace Jr. Joseph is a mysterious figure who owns a spare parts junkyard in Los Angeles. Alani Davis is a fresh LAPD recruit and Marlowe a deadly Blade Runner. Senator Bannister is a politician with strong feelings on replicant production.

Announced in November 2018, the series was animated by Sola Digital Arts with Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama as co-directors and Shinichirō Watanabe, director of Black Out 2022, as creative producer. It aired on Adult Swim's Toonami block in the United States and was simulcast on Adult Swim Canada, while Crunchyroll streamed it in Japanese with English subtitles; the opening theme is "Feel You Now" by Alessia Cara. In September 2022 Jason DeMarco confirmed that Warner Bros. Discovery had written the series off after removing it from Adult Swim's website. A four-issue comic sequel, collected as Blade Runner: Black Lotus - Leaving L.A., ran from August to November 2022, and a second volume, Las Vegas, began in September 2025.