Bartosz Sztybor, the writer and producer of the wildly popular sci-fi anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, recently spoke at an Anime Expo panel about the upcoming season of the series that had just been freshly revealed at the same event! When asked about what to expect, Sztybor was clear that he didn’t want to create any sort of uplifting story for the new season, indicating that it will echo the tone of the first heartbreaking season of the show.
When asked about what perspective he could share in regard to telling a human story in that type of science fiction world, he indicated that it was incredibly important to him and CD Projekt Red to tell a human story and remain narrative focused in the Cyperpunk universe, and followed that with what has become a viral quote that was met with an outpouring of laughter from the audience and panel alike:
“We are a company from Poland. I’m from Poland and people in Poland are sad. They are born sad, they die sad, so I just wanted to make the whole world sad.”
The panel then asked Sztybor if there were ever any plans to make a happier story for the characters and he replied with a resounding “NO… no, because when people are sad, I’m a bit happy,” which once again brought with it a great deal of laughter.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is the animated spin-off of CD Projekt Red’s futuristic crime game Cyberpunk 2077, which itself is based on Mike Pondsmith’s 1988 tabletop game Cyberpunk, later referred to as Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk Red in later editions. The Netflix exclusive series released back in 2022 and was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews, even driving fans of the show to pick up CD Projekt Red’s video game to immerse themselves further into the world they had fallen in love with.
As recently stated, Netlfix and Sztybor have shared that a new season is coming with a new trailer and the tagline, “Night City lives on.”
There is currently no official release date for the second season of the critically acclaimed anime, but the team has stated that it will premiere when it’s ready, which is far better than the alternative as far as I’m concerned, because as many of us are aware, the video game from the same universe could have certainly used a little more time to cook in the quality control oven.
Said video game, in whose universe the show takes place, Cyberpunk 2077, has recently been released on the Nintendo Switch 2, and CDPR are currently working on another game-changing update across all systems. I truly believe the success of the Netflix series has driven so much love and attention towards the game that it has continued to be consistently improved in recent years.
Regardless, season 2 of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners will be 10 episodes long and will feature a unique standalone story from the Cyberpunk 2077 universe, promising to present, “a raw chronicle of redemption and revenge.” and poses the question, “in a city that thrives in the spotlight of violence, one question remains: When the world is blinded by spectacle, what extremes do you have to go to make your story matter?”
