Alcon Entertainment announced today that Barkhad Abdi, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Captain Phillips, has joined the cast of the upcoming Blade Runner sequel. He joins a cast that includes Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Carla Juri and Dave Bautista.
The Blade Runner sequel is set several decades after the 1982 original, with Harrison Ford reprising his iconic role as Rick Deckard. The film is written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, and succeeds the initial story by Fancher and David Peoples based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Story details have still not yet been revealed.
Barkhad Abdi starred earlier this year in The Brother Grimsby opposite Mark Strong and Sacha Baron Cohen. He also recently appeared alongside Helen Mirren and the late Alan Rickman in Gavin Hood’s military thriller Eye in the Sky, available today on Blu-ray and DVD.
Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Prisoners) is directing the Blade Runner sequel. Principal photography is scheduled to begin July 2016. The film will be released by Warner Bros. in North America and Sony Pictures Releasing International will distribute in the rest of the world.
