Is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Canon? Explained
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is the first adaptation of the hit video game Cyberpunk 2077, which has become a favorite among gamers regardless of the many different problems regarding the game itself. Nevertheless, it became such a hit that an anime series was created based on it, as you get to see a lot of similarities between the actual game and the anime itself. But is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners actually canon to the Cyberpunk 2077 game?
Taking place one year before Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is canon to the events of the game itself and even features some characters that appear in the video game. There are also a few easter eggs between Cyberpunk 2077 and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and that means that they take place in the same universe.
Cyberpunk 2077 is by no means a perfect game, but it still is one of the most successful games released in the past few years. Of course, its success warranted an animated series release for the entire franchise, as people get to see Night City from the perspective of David Martinez and the other Cyberpunks in the series. Now, let’s talk more about Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
Is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Canon?
Of all of the different video games released in the past few years, not a lot of them have seen the headlines as much as Cyberpunk 2077 did due to the many different positive and negative things that people had to say about it. Regardless of what people think about the game, there is no doubt that Cyberpunk 2077 is a massive success and is one of the games that were able to deliver in terms of how amazing its world-building is and how it takes us to an entirely new place that is quite immersive.
CD Projekt, the developers of Cyberpunk 2077, saw the success of a game as an opportunity to make the universe much more immersive in the form of the animated Cyberpunk: Edgerunners series that can be seen on Netflix. The animated Cyberpunk: Edgerunners series itself is massively successful and has gotten a perfect score from Rotten Tomatoes. But is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners canon to the video game?
It was reported by The Gamer that CD Projekt confirmed the fact that there are characters in the Cyberpunk 2077 game that are present in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. That means that Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is canon to the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. Of course, the storyline of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is unique to itself and is not something that you would see in the original Cyberpunk 2077 game.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners follows the story of David Martinez, who lost his mother to an accident and ended up becoming a mercenary that works for a group of edgerunners that use advanced Cyberware that allows them to excel in their craft. Considering that he installed a military-grade Sandevistan into his body, David became one of the most reliable members of the group throughout the series.
Like the source material, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners follows a similar format in the sense that the protagonist and his fellow edgerunners take on different quests that allow them to run into hostile groups that all have their own unique Cyberware as well. As such, it is quite similar to the storytelling of the game, although not as immersive as Cyberpunk 2077.
On top of that, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners takes place in the same city as Cyberpunk 2077, and we are talking about Night City, which is a fictional city in California that can be found somewhere between Los Angeles and San Francisco. In fact, those who have played Cyberpunk 2077 will easily recognize a lot of similarities between the Night City of the game and of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
When Does Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Take Place?
We all know that Cyberpunk 2077 literally takes place in 2077, as the name of the game suggests. However, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is actually a prequel to the entire video game series because it takes place in 2076, a year before the events of Cyberpunk 2077.
This was also mentioned in the Cyberpunk 2077 game when you run into someone who would talk about David Martinez as one of the kids that became a street legend in Night City. That very same person also says that this happened a year ago, and that means that Cyberpunk: Edgerunners does indeed take place in 2076.
It is also possible that Cyberpunk: Edgerunners began in 2075 but ended in 2076 because there is a massive time skip between episodes 6 and 7. David was still only 17 at the beginning of the storyline but was 18 at the very end.
How Does Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Fit Into The Game?
Both Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Cyberpunk 2077 talk about how David Martinez was able to live a life that was sort of very fast-paced and was not sustainable because it was eventually going to end in a good way for him. However, while the animated series is canon to the universe, the thing is that the events of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners don’t necessarily affect Cyberpunk 2077’s events. In fact, David Martinez, although a legend in 2077, wasn’t even important to the events of the game.
Still, David Martinez became a legend in his own right and even became so successful as an edgerunner that he was able to get a drink named after him by the time Cyberpunk 2077 began. However, the entire universe of Cyberpunk 2077 is quite large and includes a lot of different characters that aren’t necessarily related to Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. That’s why the events of the animated series don’t necessarily fit into the game itself.
But the thing is that there are easter eggs in between the two games, as Falco, who survives the events of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, can be seen in Cyberpunk 2077. He even says that he has left the life of an edgerunner long ago because of the things that happened to him, David, and the rest of their crewmates during the events of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
In that regard, David Martinez’s story is simply something that became quite notorious among the different simple people of Night City before V comes along and takes their own legend to a higher level. As such, David is the very example of what the main character of Cyberpunk 2077 was before you take the city by storm as you play the game.