Are Johnny Silverhand and V in Cyberpunk Edgerunners? Answered

The Cyberpunk Edgerunners anime is commendable on its own merit, but it’s even more impressive when one realizes how closely it’s linked to the wider Cyberpunk 2077 canon. It features plenty of location and character cameos, with a few big players from the game even playing big roles in the show. With that said, though, you might be asking yourself one big question as you make your way through the series: Are Johnny Silverhand and V in Cyberpunk Edgerunners? Well, for better or worse, we’ve got an answer.

Do Johnny Silverhand and V Appear in Cyberpunk Edgerunners? Answered

To put it plainly, no, Johnny Silverhand and V do not appear in Cyberpunk Edgerunners.

The reason for this is twofold. The first and primary reason is that the anime takes place in 2076, a year before the events of the game. This would mean that V is still in one of the three starting locations that can serve as a player’s origin story before the game starts. Johnny Silverhand, meanwhile, is still trapped in the data chip that his personality was uploaded to, and which wouldn’t be discovered or uploaded to V until the events of the game in 2077.

The second reason is that Cyberpunk Edgerunners is and was always planned to be a separate story from the one that plays out in the game. It’s meant to be a snapshot of another group of Cyberpunks’ exploits and their eventual downfall, with David, in particular, acting as a centerpiece.

As such, it would have been counterproductive to feature V or Silverhand in the series. Doing so would have meant allocating time and attention to whatever they were doing, which – while cool for a cameo – would have been unimportant and drawn attention away from the story Studio Trigger was trying to tell.

Hopefully this cleared up whether or not Johnny Silverhand and V are in Cyberpunk Edgerunners. For more on the wider Cyberpunk universe, check out the related articles down below. We’ve also got plenty of other explainers for the anime, including what a Sandevistan is and whether or not there’ll be a Season 2.