Ridley Scott Convinced Harrison Ford to Do ‘Blade Runner 2049’ After Ford’s ‘Meh’ Response to the Sequel

Harrison Ford originally didn’t care too much about a Blade Runner sequel. But it didn’t take long for iconic filmmaker Scott to persuade Ford to do the feature.

Ridley Scott once revealed how he persuaded Harrison Ford to return to ‘Blade Runner 2049’

Scott had been developing a Blade Runner sequel for quite some time after his 1982 sci-fi cult classic. It would take decades, but a sequel would eventually hit theaters in the form of 2049. The movie had a mixture of veteran actors like Harrison Ford, and another generation of actors like Ryan Gosling and Dave Bautista. A couple of years before the film debuted, Ford shared what he thought of a possible sequel in a 2014 Reddit AMA.

“I’m quite curious and excited about seeing a new script for Blade Runner if in fact the opportunity would exist to do another, if it’s a good script I would be very anxious to work with Ridley Scott again, he’s a very talented and passionate filmmaker. And I think it would be very interesting to revisit the character,” Ford said.

But in an interview with Yahoo, Scott confided that Ford had a less than enthusiastic reaction to his Blade Runner sequel. Fortunately, the script reignited the actor’s interest.

“Yeah, and I got Harrison back. Because Harrison said, ‘Meh,’ and I said, ‘No, read this.’ And I think he said, ‘This is the best script I’ve ever had.’ We’ve been working on it for a couple of years,” he said.

Ridley Scott regretted not directing ‘Blade Runner 2049’

Although Scott had been working on the sequel for years, he eventually decided to bow out of directing the film. He handed over the reins to Denis Villeneuve. The Dune filmmaker proved he was more than a worthy successor. 2049 didn’t generate a lot of box-office, but it enjoyed massive praise from critics and audiences to compensate for its financial shortcomings.

But Scott didn’t hand 2049 to Villeneuve willingly. Circumstances forced him to direct Alien Covenant over the Ryan Gosling-led feature. In hindsight, Scott felt he made the wrong choice.

“I shouldn’t have had to make that decision,” Scott once told Empire (via IndieWire). “But I had to. I should have done Blade Runner 2.”

He also had a few criticisms regarding the sequel.

“I have to be careful what I say. I have to be careful what I say. It was f***ing way too long. F*** me! And most of that script’s mine,” he said in a 2017 interview with Vulture.

Harrison Ford once shared Ridley Scott told ‘Blade Runner 2049’ director not to mess it up

Villeneuve already felt enormous pressure inheriting Scott’s iconic film. It wasn’t an easy task, and was one that could’ve easily backfired on him if mishandled.

“I put myself into massive artistic danger. That was walking, as Christopher Nolan said to me once…walking on sacred territory. It’s true. It was sacrilegious what I did. I was told, ‘You don’t do that.’ Just the fact that I’m still here making movies, for me…at least I wasn’t banned from the filmmaker community. It was a dangerous game,” Villeneuve said.

Scott probably didn’t help relieve some of Villeneuve’s concerns. Ford revealed the Gladiator director a simple and stern warning to Villeneuve.

“He gave Denis his blessing, told him not to screw it up. ‘Let it lay like Jesus flung it,’ as my people used to say,” Ford recalled to ABC News.

But Villeneuve did the Star Wars actor proud by creating a unique vision for the sequel that still maintained close ties to the original.

“But it’s a brother from another mother. It’s pretty amazing how consistent it is with the intellectual matrix of the first one, how much that it attends to the visual storytelling of the first but is its own thing,” Ford added. “Denis has made it his own movie, and we feel that, but, we, who made the movie– the relationship with Denis was the best. He really is a remarkable person, and his control of the thing was fastidious.”