Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2 viewing guide - What to know before watching Netflix's animated series

Netflix is bringing viewers back to the neon-soaked streets of Night City with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2, but newcomers might be wondering how much they need to know before diving into the upcoming season of the Japanese animated series.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, created by Rafal Jaki and produced by the Japanese animation studio Trigger, is a ten-episode standalone tie-in to the video game Cyberpunk 2077. Season 1 is set in the Cyberpunk universe created by Mike Pondsmith and follows street kid David Martinez as he becomes a cyberpunk (a cybernetically enhanced mercenary outlaw) in Night City.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2 is a standalone sequel series that follows a new set of characters in Night City. While it is not important to watch the previous season or play Cyberpunk 2077 before the upcoming season, it can provide valuable context for the show's storytelling style, the world it inhabits, and the emotional weight of living in Night City.

Here's what to know before streaming Season 2 of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2 - What is Night City?

As mentioned earlier, watching Season 1 or playing Cyberpunk 2077 isn't necessary before streaming Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2 on Netflix. Since the upcoming season is a standalone story, anime viewers can enjoy it independently, without prior knowledge of the video game or the Netflix series. However, Night City is the connecting thread and it's important to understand the setting and its mechanics before diving into Season 2.

Season 2 marks a return to Night City, the massive, dystopian fictional megacity on the coast of California and the primary setting of the video game. According to Cyberpunk Wiki, the self-reliant metropolis, divided into six main districts controlled by several megacorporations, suffers from obsessive cybernetic body modification, corporate warfare and rampant violence, fueled by a corrupt municipal government. Officially a free city defined by towering neon skyscrapers and a high-tech environment, Night City hides a troubling reality, with rampant violence, cyberware augmentation and extreme income inequality.

The setting of Night City adds an interesting continuity between the two seasons. While the story and crew change in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2, their troubles, challenges, and experiences of interacting with the video game's setting remain the same, largely due to Night City.

Season 2 is a standalone story

Fans expecting a continuation of David and Lucy's stories in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2 will be disappointed to know that the upcoming season features a new standalone story with different characters and a different plot. According to Gizmodo, the Season 1 finale featured the fateful clash between David and Adam Smasher. David was executed on-site at Memorial Park in Night City by Smasher, allowing Lucy to escape and fulfill her dream of reaching the Moon.

Beyond David's tragedy, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2 follows a group of new protagonists. The upcoming season shakes things up by featuring not one (like Season 1) but four protagonists, each on their own separate journeys.

Here's a breakdown of the main characters in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2:

1) Talia Yang: voiced by Akari Kitō (Japanese) and Kimoy Lee (English) - Talia is a young woman who crosses paths with Maelstrom, a street gang in the video game obsessed with applying extensive cyberware to their bodies. The heavily augmented Talia becomes a key character in exploring the complicated relationship between human identity and technology in Night City.

2) Weak Kingsley: voiced by Kentaro Tone (Japanese) and Clancy Brown (English) - Formerly known as King, Weak is a washed-up veteran cyberpunk whose glory days are over. After Weak lost his cybernetic enhancements, he is looking for a new sense of purpose.

3) D: voiced by Koki Uchiyama (Japanese) and Nazeeh Tarsha (English) - D is a nomadic netrunner with a vendetta. The Snake Nation netrunner is on a quest to find his clan's killer in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2.

4) Roman Carax: voiced by Momoka Terasawa (Japanese) and Valeria Rodriguez (English) - Roman is a young and aspiring filmmaker who is adamant about recording the truth about Night City through an unconventional lens. Roman's genuine vision lies in stark contrast to the violence and corruption at the heart of the city.

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Tune in to Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2 on Netflix on October 20.

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