Following the success of The Witcher on Netflix last year, it is not all that surprising that video game developer CD Projekt Red and streaming platform Netflix would come together to create something based around the upcoming sci-fi open-world adventure game CyberPunk 2077. In what came as a bigger surprise, they are not looking at a live-action adaptation but rather a new anime instalment in the series animated by Studio Trigger, well known for works including Little Witch Academia and Kill la Kill. Titled Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Netflix subscriptions should expect to see this go live sometime in 2022.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a 10-episode standalone story which further builds upon the game’s lore. It follows a street kid trying to survive in a technology and body modification-obsessed city of the future. Having everything to lose, he chooses to stay alive by becoming an edgerunner—a mercenary outlaw also known as a cyberpunk.
This is not a newfangled idea CD Projekt Red came up with to market the game, and has been actively in development since 2018. With the publisher serving as Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ producer, it will feature direction by Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, Promare), with Masahiko Otsuka as assistant director, Hiromi Wakabayashi as assistant director, character designs by Yoh Yoshinari and Yuto Kaneko, an original score by Akira Yamaoka, and a screenplay adapted by Yoshiki Usa and Masahiko Otsuka. Should you have seen previous works by Studio Trigger such as Promare or Kill la Kill, you would have seen many of the creative team’s work before.