20 Things You Didn't Know About Blade Runner 2049
13. A Shared Universe
Blade Runner 2049 is technically the first sequel to Ridley Scott's epic - or is it? Kurt Russell's 1998 movie Soldier, written by David Peoples, co-writer of the original Blade Runner, is considered to be set in the same universe as the Blade Runner franchise.
Russell's military operative Sgt. Todd is shown to have fought at Tannhäuser Gate, a battle mentioned by Roy Batty in the famous 'tears in the rain' monologue and the 'trash' planet where Todd is marooned clearly shows a Spinner amongst the junk, the flying car used by Deckard.
There are even tenuous links to the Alien franchise - both feature artificial humans and the 'Nostromo Dossier' (a 1999 DVD extra) states that Dallas, the Nostromo's captain in Alien, received a pay check from... the Tyrell Corporation.