'Blade Runner 2049' Gets Compared to Ridley Scott's Original in New Side-by-Side Video

Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 never had the luxury of staying under the radar. As the follow-up to Ridley Scott’s 1982 future-noir Blade Runner, an influential and beloved sci-fi classic, curiosity/anxiety about whether Villeneuve’s take would do justice to Scott’s original vision has been a given since the project was announced. A new trailer that debuted this past Monday eased some fans’ fears — and, perhaps not coincidentally, a new comparison video (watch it above) from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) shows how much the sequel’s preview evokes its forerunner.

IMDB’s video juxtaposes material from Blade Runner with the trailer for the sequel. It makes plain that Villeneuve and cinematographer extraordinaire Roger Deakins have stuck very close to the 21st century Los Angeles that Scott so memorably drenched in neon and rain, marked by enormous pyramid-shaped structures — even as they’ve expanded the universe to include vast, inhospitable deserts full of ominous, gargantuan statues.

With Blade Runner 2049, Villeneuve clearly is taking pains to follow in the artistic footsteps of Scott, while also doing his best to carve out a distinctive vision. We’ll all get to rate his success when the film, starring Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, and Jared Leto, arrives in theaters on Oct. 6.

Ryan Gosling Talks About the World of ‘Blade Runner 2049’:

Read more from Yahoo Movies:

• Dave Bautista Wants No ‘Blade Runner 2049’ Spoilers — Even Though He’s in the Film

• Jared Leto Tries to Talk About His ‘Blade Runner 2049’ Character Without Revealing Anything

• ‘Blade Runner 2049’: Edward James Olmos Says He Will Return as Gaff