A Cyberpunk 2077 'live-action project' is on the way

Having completed a three-year comeback that finally turned it into the game it should have been on launch day, it looks like Cyberpunk 2077 is now headed for television screens. CD Projekt Red announced today that it is working with production company Anonymous Content on a "live-action project" that will tell a brand new story set in Night City.

The project is still in the early development stages and currently doesn't have a screenwriter, although a search for one is underway. CD Projekt said it's working "directly" with Anonymous Content Studios' head of television Garret Kemble and various other executives and producers, and that it is being developed "in close collaboration with the Cyberpunk 2077 creative team."

Anonymous Content has been around for more than 20 years, during which it's been involved with a number of television and film projects including True Detective, Schitt's Creek, The Revenant, 13 Reasons Why, and Random Acts of Flyness. It's also at least technically working on another live-action videogame project, Life is Strange, although that one was announced seven years ago and there's still no sign of it yet. (To be fair, Anonymous Content only got involved in 2021 to help "kick-start" the project.)

CD Projekt knows a thing or two about successful game-to-television translations, too. The Witcher was a huge hit on Netflix (and yes, it's based on the books and not the game, but Henry clearly drew inspiration from the game for his take on Geralt and that's close enough for me), and the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime was also excellent. That's not a guarantee of anything, obviously, but so far, so good—and Night City is the kind of setting that opens the doors to pretty much any kind of story you'd want to tell.

As for why this show is attributed to CD Projekt's game world and not the R. Talsorian tabletop game that the videogame is based on, Cyberpunk 2077 is basically a separate timeline: The original TTRPG was set in 2020 (remember, it was released in the 1980s), and subsequent editions have moved that timeline up to the 2030s and, most recently, in 2045—decades before CD Projekt's setting. That's enough of a difference to make a difference. (It also gives the production team a chance to rope in Idris Elba.)

The announcement caps off a remarkable turnaround for a game that was in such a ragged state when it launched in 2020 that Sony literally refused to sell it. The release of the 2.0 update and the Phantom Liberty expansion dramatically overhauled and improved just about every aspect of the game, and lifted Cyberpunk 2077 to its highest concurrent player count—by far—since January 2021. And, much like its Witcher 3 predecessor, the sales keep trucking along too: CD Projekt also announced today that one year after breaking the 20 million mark, Cyberpunk 2077 has now sold more than 25 million copies.