CYBERPUNK 2077, FROM GAMING TO TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING

LM INTERVIEWED BARTOSZ SZTYBOR, COMIC BOOK AND ANIMATION NARRATIVE DIRECTOR, CD PROJEKT RED, TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE NEW SERIES CYBERPUNK: EDGERUNNERS AND THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS FOR THE GAME WHICH INSPIRED IT, CYBERPUNK 2077.

Can you tell us how the anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners came about?

From the early moment of developing Cyberpunk 2077 we knew our franchise needed an anime, as the cyberpunk genre is so connected with this format. We were lucky enough to make Studio Trigger fall in love with our passion and then we started a 5-year long process of making it a reality. We all wanted to create something unique, that’s why the process of development took us almost 3 years. We had to pick the right story and get to the real essence of the Cyberpunk 2077 world. Later we had to start speaking the same artistic language with Studio Trigger and finally be in line about the story we want to tell and the impact we want to make. It wasn’t easy and the universe was not helping when the development started, also the Covid pandemic hit Europe and the rest of the world. But we managed to overcome all the problems and create a really unique anime.

The game Cyberpunk 2077 is giving birth to a vast world. After the Netflix show and the comic books, what other declinations would you like to explore?

As you said yourself, it’s a vast world, there are a lot of stories to tell and we would like to narrate the ones that are best and most emotional, engaging. Later this year we are publishing Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, an expansion to the mentioned game. We are also finishing a new comic book mini-series called Cyberpunk 2077: XOXO. We have more plans for the upcoming years but it’s too soon to tell, don’t want to spoil anything. Besides, we are a group of perfectionists so it’s always about the quality of the story, not quantity. We need to be sure the stories we want to tell will move, engage and stay with the audience for a long time. And it takes time to do that.