Dave Bautista says Blade Runner sequel is better than the original

Los Angeles - He may be struck down for blaspheming, but US wrestling champion turned action hero Dave Bautista thinks the hotly-anticipated sequel to cult sci-fi movie Blade Runner is better than the original.

The six-time WWE world champion, whose role in Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 remains a close secret, filmed in Hungary last year alongside Ryan Gosling, Jared Leto, Robin Wright and Harrison Ford.

"I think it's going to be - and this is hard to say because I know I'm going to get some grief for this - I think it's going to be better than the first film," Bautista, 48, told AFP in an interview over a hasty lunch at a West Hollywood hotel.

"And I'm saying that because I think the script is better, it's deeper. I think it's a better story, I think it's told in a better way, and I think it just answers a lot of questions. It's going to be great."

The long-anticipated Blade Runner 2049, set some 30 years after the events of the cult classic that came out in 1982, sees Ford reprise his role from Ridley Scott's original as Rick Deckard, a Los Angeles cop who hunts rogue androids.

Bautista is tight-lipped on details about his own involvement but describes his part as "a great role, man, an actor's role."

"Visually, you are stepping back into that world. You're going to be reintroduced to Deckard. The cast is absolutely amazing and I can tell you the script is super deep and really beautiful," he tells AFP.

See a teaser for here:

The film releases in SA cinemas 13 October.