Having already expanded the Alien universe in the recent flicks Prometheus and Alien Covenant, Ridley Scott has revealed that he plans to do something similar with Blade Runner.

The iconic director-producer revealed in an interview with IGN that he has been inspired by George Lucas’ expanding of the Star Wars universe. Scott said “the way [Lucas has] handled ‘Star Wars’ has been spectacular.”

He continued: “It’s what I’ve been trying to do to really evolve ‘Alien,’ because in those days I wasn’t into making sequels, but now suddenly you realize, ‘Well, that’s stupid.’ I’ll use the word ‘duh’ again, right? You’d better get into sequels, duh. So that’s in a way what I’ve been doing.”

Scott also teased that the Alien and Blade Runner franchises may even be set in the same universe: “Well, I think if ‘Alien’ is in the air, ‘Blade Runner’ is on Earth. And probably is a very good reason why you wanna leave Earth.”

Of course, the possibility of expanding the Blade Runner’s universe will depend on Blade Runner 2049’s success – this bearing in mind that the recent Alien Covenant wasn’t quite the box office hit producers were hoping for.

In the same interview, Scott also told IGN that Blade Runner 2049 will answer the question of whether Deckard is a replicant "one way or the other," a question that left fans of the original 1982 movie scratching their heads.

It’s looking likely though that the character is a replicant as Scott revealed that he always thought that was the case: “it was always my thesis theory.

“I think Harrison was going, “Uh, I don't know about that.” I said, “But you have to be, because Gaff, who leaves a trail of origami everywhere, will leave you a little piece of origami at the end of the movie to say, ‘I've been here, I left her alive, and I can't resist letting you know what's in your most private thoughts when you get drunk is a f#@king unicorn!’””

Blade Runner 2049 hits Irish cinemas on 6th October.