Edgerunners had fans longing for more and essentially reignited interest in Cyberpunk: 2077. The question now is: will there be a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2?
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has shown that anime adaptations of video games not only can succeed, but they can be freakin awesome! While it wasn’t exactly an adaptation of the previously released video game, produced by CD Projekt Red, it depicted Night City with a vibrancy that the game might have missed. So, the burning question remains: are we in store for a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2?
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2 | CD Projekt Red Addresses Rumors
CD Projekt Red had some great success, bringing their video game franchises to life in their collaborations with Netflix. The Witcher was a well received live action adaptation (mostly thanks to Henry Cavill) and fans are still asking for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2.The problem is, CD Projekt Red confirmed, that Edgerunners was planned as a standalone entry. So no season 2... that sucks!
On the other hand, that makes total sense. The first Season wrapped up the story perfectly. Absolutely heart-breaking, but no loose ends.
Forcing a second season, through some kind of Deus ex Machina, would just discredit the plot of Edgerunners. It is supposed to be bleak, and how it turned out is already pretty much a happy ending in the world of Cyberpunk.
So I wouldn't want a second season, even if they offered it!
The good news is, just because we won't be joining David and the others, doesn't mean we won't be visiting Night City in the near future. Satoru Honma, CD Projekt Red's community manager, voiced his interest in continuing the franchise. Just not with a second season of Edgerunners.
In an interview with Famitsu, Honma revealed some potential plans for the future of Cyberpunk and anime.
I personally would like to continue to work with Japanese studios to produce more anime in the future, partly because we have received very good feedback [...] However, just to be clear, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was planned as a standalone work, so there’s no such thing as ‘we are actually working on Season 2 in the background
There are more than enough stories they could tell in the world of Cyberpunk, so that works for me. We might actually get some more anime.
Those would be completely new projects, though. But just think about the endless possibilities at hand. And you can take that literally, with characters like Johnny Silverhand, or Morgan Blackhand, that could be featured in future adaptations.
The Origins of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
For those of you who didn't know, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners sin't just based on the Cyberpunk 2077 game. Both of these are actually based on the Cyberpunk universe, created by Mike Pondsmith as a tabletop RPG back in 1988, called Cyberpunk 2020.
So just like Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077 is actually based on a pen & paper RPG world that was then adapted into a video game.
Cyberpunk 2020 already featured the iconic Night City, as well as some of the most legendary characters of the Cyberpunk universe, like Morgan Blackhand, Johnny Silverhand and Adam Smasher.
While both Edgerunners and 2077, play in the same universe as Cyberpunk 2020 with its dystopian future themes, blending advanced technology with social and economic degradation, the newer entries into the franchise have evolved those elements even further and expanded on the source material.
CD Projekt and Studio Trigger really did a great job portraying a more complex and layered depiction of the cyberpunk genre's themes, which got us excited for future projects.
Glad to hear that they're already working on new Cyberpunk projects, as we speak: