"Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" Season 2 Trades Michael Bay for Scorsese
Netflix's "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" season 2, which premiered at Anime Expo 2026, moves away from season 1's action-packed roller-coaster tone toward a slower, more cinematic story focused on the people of Night City.
Netflix's Studio Trigger-produced 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' achieved cult status with the David Martinez tragedy at the end of season 1. The season 2 premiere shown at Anime Expo 2026 has a very different tone, according to CD Projekt Red: "If season 1 was a Michael Bay movie, we're aiming for Martin Scorsese in season 2."
In the opening scene, a cyberpunk going by the name "Weak" — known as "King" — nearly slips into cyberpsychosis during a heist; he stays alive only because he's paid for the highest tier of health insurance, but he loses everything else — his crew, his home, his implants. A new character, Roman, films this chaotic scene with his camera; according to James Galizio, the show's central theme is now about "cinema" itself, since the dominant form of entertainment in Night City has become passively living through someone else's memories (braindance).
Led by Kai Ikarashi, Studio Trigger aimed to capture the aesthetic of '90s animation, and the premiere episode is visually breathtaking. The episode closes with the signal cutting out and the 'Cyberpunk' logo bouncing around the screen like a DVD logo. Season 2 will premiere on Netflix in fall 2026.