Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2: New Trailer, Cast, and October 20 Release Date Revealed at Anime NYC

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is coming back, and Studio Trigger just gave fans at Anime NYC 2026 the clearest look yet at what that means. A new trailer, a cast reveal, and a confirmed premiere date all landed at the convention, setting up a return to Night City that looks and sounds like more of the same barely-controlled chaos that made the first season a breakout hit.

According to Yahoo Entertainment and GamesRadar, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 will premiere worldwide on Netflix on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, with all 10 episodes dropping at once as a standalone season. That release structure mirrors how the original season arrived in 2022 — a full binge drop rather than a weekly rollout — and it's the first hard date attached to the sequel since it was first teased.

Who's making it

The sequel remains a Studio Trigger production, co-produced by CD Projekt Red, the studio and publisher behind the Cyberpunk 2077 game the show is based on. That partnership was central to the first season's identity, pairing Trigger's frenetic, high-contrast animation style with a world built by CD Projekt Red's own writers and designers, and it's continuing into the follow-up.

The bigger production news, per CD Projekt Red's official announcement, is a change at the top: original director Hiroyuki Imaishi has stepped back from directing duties, handing the role to Kai Ikarashi, who is making his directorial debut with this project. Imaishi directed the entirety of the first season and has a long résumé at Trigger going back to shows like Kill la Kill and Gurren Lagann, so his stepping aside is a notable shift, even with the rest of the creative pipeline staying largely intact.

That continuity matters here. Bartosz Sztybor, who served as showrunner on the first season, is returning in the same role for the sequel, and Masahiko Otsuka is also returning as scriptwriter. Between the two of them, the people responsible for the story and tone of the original season are still in place even with a new director steering the animation side, which suggests Edgerunners 2 is being built as a continuation of the first season's creative DNA rather than a full reinvention.

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A new story, not a direct continuation

Here's the detail that's likely to generate the most discussion among fans of the first season: according to the official framing, Edgerunners 2 is being built as an anthology-style entry rather than a direct continuation of David Martinez and Lucy's story. CD Projekt Red has described it as "a new standalone 10-episode story from the world of Cyberpunk 2077," centered on a new cast of what's being called "netrunners and metallic ne'er-do-wells."

It's worth being precise about what that does and doesn't confirm. Current reporting from CD Projekt Red, Yahoo Entertainment, and GamesRadar does not confirm whether David, Lucy, or any other Season 1 characters appear in the new season at all — not as leads, not in cameos, not in flashbacks. The marketing language so far has been built entirely around new characters and a new corner of Night City's underworld. Fans hoping for a direct follow-up to David and Lucy's ending should treat that outcome as unconfirmed rather than expected based on what's been shown publicly.

That anthology approach isn't unprecedented for the Cyberpunk property broadly — the game itself has always treated Night City as a shared setting capable of holding many different characters' stories rather than a single protagonist's arc — but it is a meaningful structural choice for the anime specifically, given how tightly the first season's ending was tied to its two leads.

The tagline and the plot it points to

The marketing tagline attached to the new season reads: "In Night City, the lines between redemption and revenge will blur. Night City will burn again." Per the plot description tied to that tagline, the season follows a washed-up edgerunner and a skilled netrunner navigating Night City together, which lines up with the anthology framing — a new pairing at the center of the story rather than the established leads from Season 1.

The "redemption and revenge" framing also tracks with what little has leaked about the new characters' arcs so far, particularly the season's apparent focus on cyberpsychosis as a recurring theme rather than a one-off plot device, something the first season used sparingly but which this trailer leans into more directly.

Meet the new cast

The Anime NYC panel introduced several new characters, though it's worth flagging upfront that exact spellings for some of these names remain unconfirmed pending an official cast list from CD Projekt Red's cyberpunk.net, which was unreachable during research for this piece.

Weak Kingsley, voiced by Clancy Brown — known for roles in Detroit: Become Human and Avatar: The Last Airbender — is shown in the trailer as a veteran edgerunner sliding into cyberpsychosis over the course of the footage. One line delivered in the trailer stood out to attendees: "Losing yourself… that's worse than death." Given Brown's casting and the weight given to that line, Weak Kingsley looks positioned as a central figure in the new season, likely tied directly to the cyberpsychosis thread the tagline hints at.

D is introduced as a nomad and netrunner affiliated with the Snake Nation, appearing in the trailer alongside a character reported as Roman Carax — though that spelling, also seen circulating as "Roman Karax," is not yet confirmed. The two appear together in several of the trailer's action-oriented sequences.

Talia Yang — also seen reported as "Talia Young," another spelling that remains unconfirmed — appears in hospital and mechanical cyberware-repair scenes, distinguished by pink hair and a tactical face mask. Her scenes in the trailer suggest a role connected to the physical toll of edgerunner life, fitting with the general grittier, body-horror-adjacent tone Night City stories have leaned on before.

Until CD Projekt Red's own cast page is back up and confirms these names formally, all of the above should be treated as best-available reporting rather than settled fact.

What the trailer actually showed

This was the third teaser released for Edgerunners 2 overall, but the first to include actual character dialogue rather than mood-driven imagery set to music. Roughly seven minutes of footage screened at the Anime NYC panel, according to attendee reports, covering several distinct threads: visible symptoms of cyberpsychosis taking hold of at least one character, desert sequences featuring burning corpses, and rain-soaked action sequences that echo the visual language of the first season's biggest set pieces.

That combination — desert imagery alongside Night City's usual neon-and-rain aesthetic — suggests the new season may take its characters outside the city itself for at least part of the story, something the first season largely didn't do. Nothing has been confirmed yet about how much of the season takes place beyond Night City's borders, but the trailer's footage points toward a broader geographic scope than the original run.

A behind-the-scenes wrinkle worth flagging carefully

One additional detail is worth including, though it comes from a single source and should be read with appropriate caution. According to Yahoo Entertainment, showrunner Bartosz Sztybor has said that the original first season originally had "even worse endings" planned before changes were made during development. Yahoo's report doesn't specify which ending was altered, how many alternate versions existed, or when in development that change happened, and no other outlet in this round of coverage has corroborated the claim. It's an interesting footnote for anyone revisiting the first season's already-bleak conclusion, but it shouldn't be treated as confirmed detail about the sequel itself — it's context about the original show's production history, surfaced during a sequel press cycle.

Complex and the wider reaction

Complex was among the outlets covering the Anime NYC reveal alongside Yahoo Entertainment and GamesRadar, and the general reaction across coverage has focused heavily on two things: relief that Trigger and CD Projekt Red are continuing the collaboration at all, and curiosity — mixed with some hesitation — about the anthology structure sidelining David and Lucy's story rather than continuing it directly. The first season's ending was famous for being devastating and conclusive in a way that didn't leave an obvious door open for a straightforward sequel, so the pivot to new characters isn't entirely surprising in hindsight, even if it wasn't the outcome every fan was hoping for.

Where things stand heading into October

With just under two months between this Anime NYC reveal and the October 20 premiere, expect a fairly typical rollout from here: additional trailers, likely a full cast list once CD Projekt Red's official site is reachable again, and probably clarification on whether any Season 1 characters make an appearance, even in a minor capacity. For now, what's confirmed is a firm release date, a new director stepping into Imaishi's role, a returning showrunner and writer keeping the story's DNA intact, and a new cast of characters built around the same themes of cyberpsychosis, loyalty, and violence that defined the original.

Bottom line

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 has a release date, a trailer with real dialogue for the first time, and a cast of new characters headlined by Clancy Brown's Weak Kingsley. What it doesn't have yet, at least based on current reporting, is any confirmation that David Martinez or Lucy factor into the story at all — this is shaping up to be a new chapter in Night City's history rather than a direct continuation of the one fans already know. Whether that anthology approach pays off the way the first season's tightly focused story did is something audiences won't be able to judge until all 10 episodes land on Netflix on October 20.