Cyberpunk Edgerunners 2 early review: devastation in Night City
Overview & Key Takeaways
CD Projekt Red gave fans their first look at Edgerunners 2 during Anime Expo, and it’s a thrilling, retro deep dive into Night City.
David Martinez and Lucy’s tragic rise through Night City’s underbelly in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners resonated far beyond existing fans, helping transform public perception of CD Projekt Red’s once-troubled RPG into one of gaming’s greatest comeback stories. The studio repeatedly described Edgerunners as a standalone story, leaving fans convinced David’s chapter had closed for good. But Night City has never been a place defined by a single legend.
One year after Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 was first announced, Anime Expo has finally pulled back the curtain on the series follow-up in earnest. During Friday's panel, Netflix, CD Projekt Red, and Studio Trigger shared a fresh look at the sequel, offering fans their clearest glimpse yet at the anime’s new direction ahead of its Fall 2026 debut. Rather than revisiting familiar faces, Edgerunners 2 tells an entirely original story with a brand-new cast, exploring another corner of a city where survival is fleeting and everyone is chasing a chance to leave their own mark.
Episode 1, which premiered in full at Anime Expo, is a true stunner. Packed with incredible colors, gorgeous framing, and punchy sound design, Edgerunners 2 is a fresh take on a beloved world. It immediately feels like a *Ghost in the Shell-*meets-Trigun experience, offering this gritty, grounded study of Night City through realistic action and character drama. As expected, the score is a beautiful blend of electronic, pop, and rock that adds subtle weight to each character introduction. Of course, in Edgerunners fashion, there are plenty of new faces to fall in love with too.
The rogues gallery this season includes the once-legendary veteran edgrunner Weak Kinglsey, the 12-year-old cinephile Roman, the Snake Nation netrunner D, and the fierce corpo Talia Yang. Each character offers this fascinating new look at Night City, offering their own perspectives on a hyper-violent world. While many of them are easy to fall in love with, it's best not to get too attached. Edgerunners likes to pull the rug from under your feet, after all.
On stage at Anime Expo, series writer Bartosz Sztybor called Edgerunners season 1 a Michael Bay movie, while Edgrunners 2 will be more like a Martin Scorsese experience. When asked why Edgerunners deserved a second season, he cited having "new questions" to ask in relation to Night City. Even after answering some questions in Edgerunners 1, he claimed there's more to ask beyond “what does it mean to sacrifice yourself for someone?” Don't worry, you can expect more than enough trauma, as Styzbor notes, there will be a lot of heartbreak.
It’s a bold approach, but perhaps the only one that makes sense. Edgerunners was never really about David Martinez alone, but about the cost of chasing a dream in Night City — and that’s one story the Cyberpunk universe will never run out of telling.
