Yes, the sequel is not continuing David’s story but Instead it’s a standalone 10-episode story with an entirely new group of characters. Netflix describes it as a story of revenge and redemption, while the official Cyberpunk website introduces characters including Weak a washed up former edgerunner struggling after losing the chrome that once defined him and D a deadly netrunner hunting the people responsible for wiping out his clan.
This set up already feels different and is Good thing cause trying to recreate David’s story would have been the easiest mistake to make. Fans already know what happened to him, and simply replacing him with another troubled teenager, giving him a cool jacket and a tragic soundtrack would probably feel like a cheap repeat but instead Edgerunners 2 seems to be asking a different question what happens to people who are already broken by Night City?
Weak Kingsley is particularly interesting because he’s not an underdog character that’s starting from zero instead he’s someone who has already lived the edgerunner dream and survived long enough to watch it disappear. On the other hand D who is driven by revenge and appears to be getting pulled toward secrets involving the corporations that control Night City.
This gives the upcoming sequel a chance to explore another side of the Cyberpunk world what happens after that dream falls apart rather than showing
The show visualization is changing too with studio trigger returning alongside CD Projekt Red with creative lineup of amazing crew, Kai Ikarashi directing the series with Kanno Ichigo serving as lead character designer and Bartosz Sztybor handling the story. With all the promotional material we got so far describes that this new anime is gonna have more raw and brutal take on Night City.
Edgerunners became one of those anime where even people who normally don’t watch anime ended up talking about it. The first season of the series had the perfect combination of animation, music, character writing and the already-established world of Cyberpunk 2077 where it didn’t feel like an advertisement for a game instead it felt like its own story.
There will always be comparisons with the first Edgerunners and that’s unavoidable. But if the new series manages to make its own characters worth following and finds a story that feels different from David’s, it may not have to spend the whole time living in the shadow of the original.
That’s probably what makes October 20 interesting, we’re not going back to David’s Night City. We’re getting another look at the same city through someone else’s eyes.