The ending of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners left viewers devastated, but the show's writer says an even grimmer fate almost befell the protagonist. Bartosz Sztybor, who worked on the Studio Trigger and CD Projekt Red collaboration, revealed in a recent interview that the creative team considered multiple versions of how David Martinez's story could conclude, with some far more brutal than what Netflix ultimately released in 2022.
In the scrapped scenario Sztybor discussed, David survives his confrontation with Adam Smasher but faces a worse outcome. "There was one ending in which David doesn't die entirely. Arasaka gets him and he ends up fighting in Africa or South America in corporate wars as a robot," Sztybor explained during the conversation with Anime Corner. That alternate path would have transformed the character into a weaponized cyborg forced into endless combat across the globe, a fate arguably more nightmarish than death.
The actual finale viewers experienced carries tremendous emotional weight on its own. David's dream of escaping Night City never materializes. He falls to Adam Smasher's superior augmentations, his body destroyed beyond recovery. Lucy, his partner throughout the series, finally achieves her long-held goal of reaching the moon, but alone. The closing sequence of her gazing down at Earth while "I Really Want to Stay at Your House" plays underscores the tragedy with brutal simplicity.
Sztybor's mention of "even worse endings" in plural suggests the team explored multiple darker directions before settling on the version that aired. The writer's comments hint at a development process where the writers repeatedly asked themselves how much pain they could inflict on the characters before crossing a line. The ten-episode series never shies away from Night City's brutality, making the question of what would constitute "worse" particularly intriguing for those who found the actual ending devastating.
The show's grim trajectory was established from the opening episode. David Martinez enters the story as an ambitious edgerunner determined to carve out a life beyond the corporate structures dominating his world. Each decision compounds his isolation. Each augmentation brings him closer to losing his humanity. The narrative builds toward inevitable tragedy, yet the specific nature of that tragedy still could have shifted significantly had the writers chosen differently.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners characters continue to exist within the larger Cyberpunk 2077 universe as side content integrated into the main game. A second season is in development with details expected to emerge on June 29, though no premiere date has been announced. A prequel manga focused on Rebecca released in February expanded the universe further, providing additional depth to the world surrounding David's story.
Author Emily Chen: "The fact that this ending was still considered the better option tells you everything about how dark the creators were willing to go with this story."
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