This article appears in the new issue of DEN OF GEEK magazine. Find out how you can subscribe to get the full physical copy right here!Anime’s rich relationship with video games goes all the way back to the ‘80s and has only become more prominent over time. Netflix has found tremendous success with its anime adaptations of iconic gaming franchises such as Castlevania, Devil May Cry, and Arcane. This synergy often feels natural, but it’s still a challenge to pull off in a way that appeals to both seasoned gamers and anime acolytes who have never worked their ways through these virtual worlds. 2022’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, a passionate extrapolation of CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 RPG, has set new standards regarding video game anime. Set in Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City technocracy, the anime forged a unique path forward with an original story that matches Cyberpunk 2077’s ethos rather than a straight adaptation of the video game. Not only did Studio Trigger’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners resonate with anime fans, accruing nearly 15 million hours of viewing in its first week alone and winning Anime of the Year at 2023’s seventh Crunchyroll Anime Awards, it also led to a symbiotic relationship that saw even more gamers logging into Cyberpunk 2077‘s Night City to immerse themselves in this cybernetically-enhanced dystopia.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});Even Cyberpunk tabletop RPG creator Mike Pondsmith and acclaimed video game industry visionary Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid, Death Stranding) praised Cyberpunk: Edgerunners as a modern cyberpunk classic and a triumph in world-building. To many, the prospect of returning to Night City for a sequel and losing this magic would be tempting fate. However, leave it to CD Projekt Red and Studio Trigger to find a way for lightning to strike twice and match Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’s excellence, albeit in a brand-new package. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, which drops its entire 10-episode season this Fall, plugs into a brand-new tale of tech-driven revenge, rebirth, and revolution with a fresh cast of characters. If Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’s fans thought David Martinez, Rebecca, and Lucy were a lot to handle, they’ll need to prepare themselves for what Weak Kingsley, D, and Roman Carax bring to the techno table. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2’s showrunner and executive producer, Bartosz Sztybor, along with the series’s director, Kai Ikarashi, tease what fans can expect in their return visit to Night City in what’s guaranteed to be one of 2026’s most talked-about anime.The first season of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was such a breakout success. Any time a second season or sequel for a project gets announced, there’s some degree of trepidation over whether it can match its predecessor’s quality. What was the process like putting this second season together, and why was it the right story to tell in this return to Night City?Bartosz Sztybor: I already had ideas for Edgerunners 2 while writing David’s and Lucy’s story. I already knew that though one story arc was finished, Night City had more stories to tell, as there’s so much more to say about the ethos of being an edgerunner. As for the process of finding the right story and style for Edgerunners 2, that was actually rather simple! We knew from the start that it needed to be something completely unique but true to the core pillars of Edgerunners.Of course, there were moments when I had doubts about making that choice. I’ve even had nightmares about it. After all, fans love David and Lucy’s story so much! But we also knew that their story was concluded. Even though some fans ask for David’s resurrection, we should honor his and Edgerunners’s legacy.So to get back to the original question — I wanted to take those core story pillars and themes of Edgerunners and present them from a totally different perspective. With different characters, the audience can see different outcomes that draw from the particular decisions and choices these new characters, new people, make.Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 tells an original story with new characters. With so much changing, were there any particular elements from the past that you knew you needed to include to represent the series’s DNA?Sztybor: Yes, I already mentioned those story pillars and themes that you knew from Edgerunners, so of course the show had to be about that: edgerunners in Night City. More often than not, cyberpunks are mercs working for fixers, but it’s a group that also includes people who are living on the edge, those who can’t fully cope with the reality around them and try to rebel against it in their own way.Beyond that, there are many more avenues and themes that are part of that DNA. The edgerunners ethos, the sense of sacrifice, different kinds of love in a bleak reality, even a relationship with your parents as something that makes you who you are. If you recall the very first episode of Edgerunners, with David and his mother Gloria — that scene between them in the car, before the tragic crash occurs — we’re going deeper into moments like that.You were both involved with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’s first season. How was that previous experience helpful – and potentially challenging – for returning to this world?Sztybor: I definitely took all of my knowledge and experience working with Studio Trigger into Edgerunners 2. Working together with them on Edgerunners opened me up a lot, and I learned so much. Of course, it’s a new creative team for Edgerunners 2, but their processes and the way they understand and interpret the story are rather similar. And it felt great that I could use that experience and knowledge from Edgerunners right away and hit the ground running.Of course, working with a new director is always going to bring a new challenge, too; it’s a new perspective with new ideas, after all. But from the very first meeting with Kai Ikarashi, I had a feeling we had a similar taste in music and movies (and I was right!), so there was a mutual understanding between us and what stories we wanted to tell.Kai Ikarashi: Having worked on Cyberpunk: Edgerunners as an episodic director, I had a good idea of how to approach the visual style. Whether I chose to deviate from that framework or fit right into it, having that baseline made the process a lot more manageable. As for the story, I figured it would be difficult to put together something on par with the original season. And in reality, it truly was challenging.How is the version of Night City that’s seen in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners any different from the first season? Has a lot changed since the first season’s events?Sztybor: Tricky question; it depends how deep you want to go when you talk about change. In fact, I’d rather not say and leave this up to the viewers to see for themselves.Kai Ikarashi: In my opinion, it hasn’t changed, because a system like that cannot be changed so easily.Was there ever the temptation to tell a more conventional sequel that’s a direct continuation of the first season or was it important to let those characters rest?Sztybor: Never. Well, only those recurring nightmares that are whispering… no, screaming into my ear that it should be more conventional… But no, David’s story came to an end. It’s his legacy. At CD PROJEKT RED, we don’t want to rely on fan service. We want to create new things, explore the unexplored, risk and experiment to always lead, never follow.Curiously, the first season’s intense melodrama and emotional devastation were a huge part of what made Cyberpunk: Edgerunners such a success. Are these tonal elements that have carried over to Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2?Sztybor: Yes, that’s one of the core elements of Edgerunners as a series. Of course, we can’t repeat ourselves; we need to surprise fans and play with their expectations, but yes — if you want trauma, Edgerunners will deliver.Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’s eclectic cast of characters won over fans with their creative designs, which felt unique but also authentic to the cyberpunk experience. What were some of the challenges with designing a whole new cast of characters? Were there any limitations or mandates present or changes that had to be made?Sztybor: One thing that we had to keep in mind was the Cyberpunk 2077 design style, so every character needed to stay true to the world. But if you look at Doc or Faraday in Edgerunners, both characters introduced new design ideas that we then incorporated into our lore. So, we wanted Studio Trigger to have some artistic freedom to explore crazy ideas. But the biggest challenge was the one you already mentioned. How do you make the characters of Edgerunners 2 stand out, and feel interesting in their own right after you’ve already had such an amazing and original cast in Edgerunners?Thankfully, we didn’t let that tame us. We didn’t search for originality just for the sake of it. We knew that edgerunners have their style, so it needs to be recognizable, but we can play with their look here and there. We’re also introducing types of characters that we were not exploring in Edgerunners, and we have two super wild designs that I think will make fans incredibly excited.Revenge is a major part of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’s story. Can you talk about its role this season and why vengeance was important to explore?Sztybor: Revenge was David Martinez’s drive, and it is one of the core emotions for Edgerunners as a series, so we wanted to explore that further. Revenge itself is also a very common thing in this world where you need to fight to survive. And sometimes you can hurt someone, even if you had your own good reasons (in a moral sense), the outcome can be perceived as negative for someone else. Moral ambiguity is a very important topic in everything CD Projekt Red works on, and vengeance is a great story engine to explore it.Kai Ikarashi: I believe that revenge represents a powerful personal emotion that exists independently of any system. That is why it was brought as a theme in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2.Why do you think the cyberpunk genre is experiencing such a renaissance and appealing to so many people right now?Sztybor: We’re living a cyberpunk reality right now, so what was a dark future 40 years ago is now super close to reality. On one hand, people see it as a cautionary tale, but on the other hand, it is something that is getting closer and closer, one year or even one week ahead. Cyberpunk is also a tale of humanity and identity, so it perfectly catches the zeitgeist.Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2 premieres Oct. 20 on Netflix.The post Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2 Promises a Brand New Night City Story appeared first on Den of Geek.