will cyberpunk have a season 2?
The first season of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is an animated show that impressed regular viewers and gamers alike... But, I am here to break your heart, as CD Projekt Red has confirmed that there are no plans for a second season.
Fans hoping to see Cyberpunk: Edgerunners land a season 2 renewal are about to be disappointed. No, Netflix has not killed off your favorite show yet again, but rather in this case, CDPR is now admitting that there really never were any plans for a season 2, and that has not changed now, even given the success of the series.
Speaking to Famitsu, via VGC, CDPR’s Japan country manager Satoru Honma talked about the concept of Edgerunners season 2:
"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," said Honma. "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’. Even if we could make more anime in the future, I don’t know if it would be Season 2 or something completely different."
“Overseas people say that the anime has given CDPR a second chance. We are grateful to TRIGGER for giving us the chance to enjoy the story of V and Johnny Silverhand after watching the anime.”
If you’ve seen Edgerunners (spoilers follow), you may have a pretty good idea as to why there’s no planned season 2, given that almost every member of David’s crew died, including David himself, with only Lucy escaping. A second season could have followed Lucy into new adventures, I suppose, but even if Edgerunners did return, it would likely have to be a new crew, a new story. And that was never the plan.
In this case, I would never say never. Honma is not shutting the door forever, just saying that nothing is planned and if they returned, it would be a long ways away and probably not even a traditional season 2 in any case. One aspect of this is animation studio TRIGGER being extremely busy and rarely doing follow-up seasons to their work in the first place. But CDPR has made it very clear they want to expand the Cyberpunk IP. Next up is a new Cyberpunk novel, out next year. DLC for the main game is coming in 2023, and a full Cyberpunk 2077 sequel has been confirmed to be getting made.
Still, it’s kind of a bummer that CDPR didn’t plan out a larger vision for Edgerunners when they saw how good the series was. Other shows that are grouped into a similar category are not one-off offerings. Castlevania ran for four seasons and was great the whole time. Riot’s Arcane on Netflix is getting a second season and that was likely planned from the start.
So, it’s a bummer, but I understand it. And despite the hugely positive scores from fans and critics, I’m not sure that Edgerunners was hugely watched, as I don’t think it put up numbers as big as Castlevania, and certainly not Arcane. So maybe it wouldn’t have been a sure thing within Netflix anyway. What the show did, however, was prove the strength and potential of the Cyberpunk IP, whether that’s for future games, animated projects or even potentially live-action, which I’m sure CDPR is eying. Stay tuned for what’s next.
The 10-episode anime series was released on Netflix on September 13 and critical reception was widely positive.
As such, in a recent interview with Famitsu, CD Projekt Red‘s Japan country manager Satoru Honma was asked if this reaction had led to the possibility of a second season.
However, Honma replied that there were no plans to continue the story.
“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,” Honma explained.
“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’.
“Even if we could make more anime in the future, I don’t know if it would be Season 2 or something completely different.”
Cyberpunk Edgerunners is animated by Tokyo-based animation company Studio Trigger, directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, Promare), and features an original score composed by Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill).
The series has been a huge hit for its creators, having been in Netflix’s global top ten for over a month and garnered one of the streaming platform’s highest review scores ever.
The show’s popularity, combined with a new patch and discount, led to a huge increase in players of the Cyberpunk 2077 game, with more than one million playing daily.
“Overseas people say that the anime has given CDPR a second chance,” Honma told Famitsu. “We are grateful to TRIGGER for giving us the chance to enjoy the story of V and Johnny Silverhand after watching the anime.”
CD Projekt announced earlier this month that it’s working on a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, among other projects.
The Cyberpunk 2077 sequel – codenamed ‘Project Orion’ – will be developed by CD Projekt Red North America, a new studio opening in Boston, USA, and “prove the full power and potential of the Cyberpunk universe”, the company said.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners proved that anime adaptations can work and can be awesome to boot! Even though it wasn't really a video game, adaptation, it managed to bring Night City to life in a way the game couldn't. But will we get a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2?
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.
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.
I mean, they're already working on new Cyberpunk projects, as we speak:
