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First look at: Blade Runner 2049

Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is back in Blade Runner 2049
Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is back in Blade Runner 2049 Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is back in Blade Runner 2049

SCI-FI fans got their first glimpse of the much anticipated Blade Runner sequel this week with the release of a teaser trailer for the Denis Villeneuve-directed film.

Set 30 years after Ridley Scott's original movie, Blade Runner 2049 stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford – the latter reprising his role as rogue Replicant hunting LAPD 'Blade Runner' Rick Deckard, who eventually discovers that he may also be a genetically engineered synthetic.

We meet both in the teaser, which kicks off with a snippet of Ford's now iconic voice-over from the first film:

"Replicants are like any other machine; they're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem," Deckard intones, as Gosling's rookie Blade Runner Officer K roams the steam and neon-bathed midnight streets of future LA and a desert wasteland.

Eventually, the pair face-off in a crumbling apartment building.

"I had your job once: I was good at it," snarls a visibly aged Deckard (thus throwing the whole 'Deckard was a Replicant' theory into chaos) as he emerges from the gloom, instantly recognisable Blade Runner pistol pointed right at K.

"Things were simpler then," responds the younger model.

The brooding neo-noir tone of the Vangelis soundtracked two minute clip has pleased many Blade Runner die-hards, who have been hoping that Villeneuve (who's currently enjoying rave reviews for his current sci-fi flick, Arrival) will preserve the look and feel of Scott's much loved film.

We'll find out for sure in just under a year.

:: Blade Runner 2049 is scheduled for release in October 2017