Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is taking a very different narrative approach from its predecessor. Rather than centering the story around one relationship like David and Lucy, writer-producer Bartosz Sztybor says the upcoming season will follow multiple characters whose separate journeys gradually intersect.
In an interview with Animation Magazine, Sztybor compared the structure directly to Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, revealing that the season features six or even eight major characters, each with their own goals and storylines.
EDGERUNNERS 2 TAKES A “PULP FICTION” APPROACH
Sztybor explained that the first Edgerunners largely focused on David and Lucy, particularly their relationship and David’s rise and fall in Night City. Season 2 expands that formula by creating several parallel narratives that can collide as the story progresses.
“I like to say it’s a Pulp Fiction approach here now, because we have six or even eight different characters and different storylines.”
According to Sztybor, these characters will not simply exist alongside one another. Their decisions can influence other storylines, with some eventually crossing paths as cause-and-effect connections develop throughout the season.
This approach also fits the anthology philosophy that Sztybor and the creative team established for Edgerunners. The second season tells a new standalone story while retaining the same world, themes and identity of Cyberpunk 2077.
A VETERAN EDGERUNNER REPLACES DAVID’S ORIGIN STORY
The central character is Weak, described as a veteran assassin and Edgerunner who represents an opposite trajectory to David’s journey in Season 1. While David was a newcomer attempting to establish himself in Night City, Season 2 explores what happens to someone who has already survived years in the city’s brutal mercenary world.
Sztybor described the new season as a mirror image of the first, with the story examining a veteran Edgerunner who loses his cyberware and has to navigate Night City from a dramatically different position.
The writer also teased a darker thematic direction. Edgerunners 2 will continue CD Projekt Red’s preference for morally complicated stories where victories can carry devastating consequences.
“If you win at the end, you will lose a lot,”
Sztybor said.
Studio Trigger returns for the sequel, but the creative team has changed. Director Kai Ikarashi is leading the new season, while Sztybor says a younger generation of Trigger creators has given the animation a “more raw and punky” appearance compared with the cleaner visual style of Season 1.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is planned as a 10-episode standalone story, continuing to explore revenge, identity, family and legacy within Night City’s neon-soaked dystopia.
