CD Projekt has drawn its clearest line yet around the planned live-action Cyberpunk film: it is not being made as a direct retelling of Cyberpunk 2077.
Co-CEO Michał Nowakowski said the company wants the film to tell a story set in the Cyberpunk world rather than translate the game’s narrative scene by scene. That distinction matters. It suggests the project is being positioned as a new entry in a shared fictional setting, not as a screen version of the specific journey players experienced as V.
“We want to tell a story in the world of Cyberpunk, but it won't be a one-to-one translation of the game's story,” Nowakowski said.
The film is being developed in partnership with Paramount under the Skydance banner, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura is attached as producer. Beyond that basic creative direction and the producing arrangement, there are no supplied details on its characters, setting, cast, release timing, or plot.
What a non-direct adaptation rules out
Cyberpunk 2077 follows V, a freelance mercenary whose life is transformed after a mysterious computer chip ends up in their brain. The chip carries the digital presence of Johnny Silverhand, the character played by Keanu Reeves. That setup gives the game an intensely personal central conflict: V’s identity, agency, and survival become entangled with another consciousness.
A one-to-one film adaptation would ordinarily mean treating that core plot as the movie’s foundation, with V and Johnny’s relationship supplying the central dramatic spine. CD Projekt’s statement indicates that is not the plan. It does not establish that V, Johnny Silverhand, or other familiar game characters cannot appear. It simply means the game’s story will not be reproduced as the film’s narrative template.
That leaves several possibilities open without confirming any of them. A new film could focus on different people, a different corner of the setting, or a conflict whose stakes are unrelated to V’s. It could also use recognizable locations and worldbuilding elements while reserving its lead characters and primary storyline for the screen. Until the project identifies its premise, those remain interpretations of the stated approach rather than announced facts.
Why the wider Cyberpunk setting can support an original film
The underlying universe comes from tabletop RPG designer Mike Pondsmith. That origin is useful context for understanding CD Projekt’s choice. A tabletop role-playing setting is built to accommodate many stories and player-made characters rather than one fixed protagonist alone. The world therefore has room for stories about people with different jobs, loyalties, augmentations, ambitions, and degrees of power.
The setting also supports thematic continuity even when its characters change. The supplied background identifies identity, autonomy, and the question of whether a person remains the same after being modified or reproduced as central ideas that can be explored in this universe. Those concepts are especially relevant to cyberpunk fiction, where technology can alter bodies, memories, and the boundaries between a person and a product.
Autonomy, in this context, means a character’s ability to make meaningful choices about their own life and body. Identity concerns what makes someone themselves when memory, consciousness, or physical form can be changed. The “Ship of Theseus” idea mentioned in discussion of the setting is a philosophical thought experiment: if every part of something is replaced over time, is it still the same thing? In a world shaped by cybernetic modification and digital consciousness, that question can become a human drama rather than an abstract puzzle.
None of this requires the film to repeat V’s exact predicament. In fact, an original story could examine those themes from another angle while allowing the game to remain the definitive version of its own protagonist’s story.
Edgerunners offers the closest available model
The strongest point of comparison in the available information is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. The Studio Trigger-led anime is described as a faithful multimedia project that takes place within the world established by CD Projekt while telling a fresh story centered on original characters. It connects to the broader setting through its world, locations, and recognizable elements, without functioning as a retelling of the game’s plot.
That is not confirmation that the live-action film will follow the anime’s exact formula. Animation and live action are different formats, and the movie’s creative team has not outlined its approach in public detail here. But the comparison explains why an original narrative is not a retreat from the game’s world. It is a strategy CD Projekt has already used to extend that world into another medium.
For audiences, this can make the film more approachable in two directions. People who know the game may be able to meet new characters without having familiar quests or endings recreated for them. People who have never played may be able to enter through a self-contained film story rather than feeling required to learn every plot beat from a lengthy RPG first.
That approach carries a trade-off. A direct adaptation arrives with an obvious set of scenes, characters, and moments fans may expect to see. An original story has to earn its connection to the setting through its own characters and dramatic stakes. Familiar neon, technology, and terminology alone would not be enough; the movie would need to make its new story feel meaningfully at home in the same world.
What remains unconfirmed
It is important not to read the statement as more specific than it is. CD Projekt has confirmed a broad creative principle, not a detailed production plan. The supplied information does not identify a director, screenwriter, cast, storyline, release window, rating, distribution plan, or the portion of the setting that the film will explore.
It also does not promise the return of Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand. The character is a major part of Cyberpunk 2077, but the stated decision to avoid a direct game adaptation means audiences should not assume that the film will revisit Silverhand’s history or place him at the center of the narrative.
Similarly, there is no basis yet to say how closely the live-action production will resemble the visual style or tone of Edgerunners. The anime is relevant because it demonstrates the viability of a new tale in the same fictional universe, not because it reveals the movie’s cast, plot, or aesthetic choices.
A broader moment for CD Projekt’s worlds
The film is one of several projects connected to CD Projekt’s current portfolio. A second season of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is set to launch on Netflix on October 20. Meanwhile, a sequel currently known as Cyberpunk 2 is in development, though it is described as still feeling years away.
The studio has also begun work on Project Hadar, its first game set in an original universe of its own. That is a notable change for a company whose best-known game worlds have originated elsewhere: The Witcher is based on novels, while Cyberpunk began as a tabletop role-playing game.
For the live-action film, the immediate practical implication is straightforward: it has creative space. It does not need to compress the choices, branching structure, and player-defined identity of V into a single fixed movie narrative. Instead, it can use the setting’s established concerns—technology, personal agency, modification, and power—to build a story designed around the strengths of a film.
That freedom is also the project’s biggest unanswered question. The movie now has a declared purpose beyond reenacting the game, but its eventual identity will depend on the original characters and conflict it chooses. For now, the key takeaway is narrow but significant: the live-action Cyberpunk film will expand the universe rather than replay Cyberpunk 2077.
Interest in game worlds crossing into other formats also extends beyond screen projects; for example, a full-scale Fallout Power Fist replica with in-game sound activation shows how familiar interactive worlds can be interpreted outside their original games.
