Writer Bartosz Sztybor has shared details on an alternate ending considered for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners that would have left protagonist David Martinez in a worse fate than death.
Sztybor told Anime Corner there was never a plan for a happy ending. Earlier drafts included an outcome in which Arasaka captures David instead of killing him, forcing him to fight in corporate wars in Africa or South America.
In the version that aired, David dies at the hands of Adam Smasher while his partner Lucy reaches the moon colony she had dreamed of. The writer noted that the rejected ending would have been bleaker because David would have died fighting for the corporate system he opposed.
Netflix and Studio Trigger are scheduled to reveal the second season of the anime on June 29. The new season will follow a fresh cast of characters in Night City. A brief glimpse of one new figure, described as a media, appeared at the Annecy Animation Festival earlier this week.