I think Denis absolutely got certain elements out of
Blade Runner 2049 that Ridley wouldn't have (and vice versa, I think there are things that Ridley would have gotten out of it that Denis didn't). We know that Ridley would have been working off of the same script, had he directed it, and we know that the opening of the film, which is a modified version of the opening of an older iteration of Ridley's "Blade Runner 2" (which itself is a modified version of a cut opening from
Blade Runner) predates
Blade Runner 2049 (and Denis' hiring) by quite some time:
Quote"We decided to start the film off with the original starting block of the original film. We always loved the idea of a dystopian universe, and we start off at what I describe as a 'factory farm' - what would be a flat land with farming. Wyoming. Flat, not rolling - you can see for 20 miles. No fences, just plowed, dry dirt. Turn around and you see a massive tree, just dead, but the tree is being supported and kept alive by wires that are holding the tree up. It's a bit like Grapes of Wrath, there's dust, and the tree is still standing. By that tree is a traditional, Grapes of Wrath-type white cottage with a porch. Behind it at a distance of two miles, in the twilight, is this massive combine harvester that's fertilizing this ground. You've got 16 Klieg lights on the front, and this combine is four times the size of this cottage. And now a spinner [a flying car] comes flying in, creating dust. Of course, traditionally chased by a dog that barks, the doors open, a guy gets out and there you've got Rick Deckard. He walks in the cottage, opens the door, sits down, smells stew, sits down and waits for the guy to pull up to the house to arrive. The guy's seen him, so the guy pulls the combine behind the cottage and it towers three stories above it, and the man climbs down from a ladder - a big man. He steps onto the balcony and he goes to Harrison's side. The cottage actually [creaks]; this guy's got to be 350 pounds. I'm not going to say anything else - you'll have to go see the movie."
https://movieweb.com/blade-runner-2-opening-scene-ridley-scott/All that being said, just to repeat my above statements, I honestly think that what Denis brought to this particular project is balanced (and contrasted) very nicely by what Ridley personally brought to
Covenant, and both are films that I do truly love. Both directors have such unique styles that, even if working off of the same script, they definitely would have delivered radically different results in their respective versions of
Blade Runner 2049, and that is definitely something that is interesting to think about. I do totally get Ridley looking back on things with a bit of regret, given the overall response to one film vs the other, but also, I'm honestly just happy to have both of these movies in the forms that they do currently exist in, playing into the overall styles of their individual filmmakers, and to be following both of these filmmakers' careers (and both of these series, as well) where they are now and where they are heading, post-2017.
