CD Projekt says the Cyberpunk 2077 movie with Paramount will not be a direct V and Johnny Silverhand retelling, leaving the Night City film open for a new story.
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CD Projekt is steering away from V’s main quest
The Cyberpunk 2077 movie is not being planned as a straight retelling of the game, according to CD Projekt Red co-CEO Michał Nowakowski. Speaking to Polish business outlet PAP Biznes, Nowakowski said the company does not want to make a direct film adaptation of Cyberpunk 2077 and instead wants to tell a story set in the wider Cyberpunk world.
The key line, as translated and quoted by multiple outlets including Polygon, IGN, TheGamer, and Rock Paper Shotgun, is that the project "won't be a one-to-one translation of the game's story." That is the firmest Cyberpunk 2077 film detail CD Projekt has offered so far, and it immediately reframes what fans should expect from the Paramount Pictures project.
For players who were picturing a live-action sprint through V’s rise, the Relic crisis, and Johnny Silverhand’s digital haunting, CD Projekt’s message points elsewhere. The company has not said V, Johnny, or any familiar character is banned from appearing. It has said the movie is not being shaped as a direct V and Johnny Silverhand retelling. That distinction matters because Cyberpunk 2077 is built around player choice, branching identity, and endings that do not collapse neatly into one canonical blockbuster route.
There is also a sourcing caveat worth keeping visible. Rock Paper Shotgun noted that the PAP Biznes interview was conducted and published in Polish, and that it was working from a machine translation while also checking the wording with a Polish-speaking contact and seeking comment from CD Projekt Red. The core point, however, is consistent across the English-language reports: CD Projekt is positioning the Cyberpunk movie story as a new entry in the setting, not a filmed version of the game’s main campaign.
A Night City movie gives CD Projekt room the game never needed
Cyberpunk 2077’s story works because it is a video game story. Its pace is elastic. A player can chase Takemura through the main plot, vanish into side gigs for a dozen hours, rebuild V’s body around a different combat style, or spend an evening walking through Night City’s districts without advancing the Relic crisis at all. A film does not have that luxury. A Cyberpunk 2077 movie has to move like a movie, with clean escalation, controlled reveals, and set pieces that build toward a fixed end.
That is where CD Projekt’s confirmed direction makes practical sense. A direct adaptation would have to choose a version of V, choose how V talks, choose which relationships matter, choose which ending counts, and decide how much Johnny Silverhand a two-hour structure can hold. Every choice would lock down something that the game deliberately leaves flexible for players.
A new Night City movie can instead treat the city as the engine. The game already proved that Night City can support stories at multiple scales: corporate warfare, street-level survival, media manipulation, body modification, mercenary ambition, and personal identity under technological pressure. IGN framed the setting as broad enough for stories about identity, autonomy, and the self reshaped by technology, while noting that the Cyberpunk universe originated with tabletop RPG designer Mike Pondsmith.
That does not mean the film automatically has a stronger shape. It means the movie does not have to spend its first act proving why this V is the definitive V. From a narrative design point of view, that removes a major drag on pacing. It lets the film open on a new pressure point in Night City, define its protagonist quickly, and build its action around a story made for a fixed runtime rather than around a quest log.
Paramount is the new partner after Anonymous Content expired
The movie is being developed with Paramount Pictures, following an earlier live-action route that did not continue. In the PAP Biznes comments quoted by Rock Paper Shotgun, Nowakowski said CD Projekt’s contract with Anonymous Content had expired and that an opportunity arose to work with Paramount Pictures. He described the project as moving forward in a "new formula."
That shift is one of the more concrete business details around the CD Projekt Cyberpunk adaptation. CD Projekt previously announced a partnership with Anonymous Content in 2023, according to reporting cited by Northeast Times, but the current live-action film is now tied to Paramount. Nowakowski had also posted on X when the Paramount plans were confirmed, saying CD Projekt was excited about Paramount as a future partner that shared the company’s creative ambitions for the Cyberpunk franchise and that more information would be shared at the appropriate time.
Several outlets, including Polygon, IGN, Gagadget, and Northeast Times, report that Lorenzo di Bonaventura is attached as producer. Polygon notes his credits include live-action Transformers projects and that he has executive produced video game adaptations such as Dead Rising: Watchtower and Doom: Annihilation. Gagadget also points to his broader franchise record while noting that reception across past projects has been mixed.
What has not been announced is just as important. The sources provided do not name a director, screenwriter, cast, release date, budget, rating, or production start window. No platform or theatrical strategy has been detailed. For now, the Cyberpunk 2077 movie is confirmed as a live-action Paramount collaboration with a stated creative direction, but it is still light on the production facts that would tell fans how close it is to cameras rolling.
Edgerunners is the clearest precedent, but not a blueprint
The comparison that keeps surfacing is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and for good reason. Polygon notes that CD Projekt took a similar approach with the Netflix anime by working with Studio Trigger on an original story set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077. That series did not retell V’s arc. It used Night City’s rules, locations, and tone to follow different characters through a separate tragedy.
Polygon reports that Edgerunners was directed by Studio Trigger co-founder Hiroyuki Imaishi, with CD Projekt franchise creative director Bartosz Sztybor co-writing the screenplay alongside Masahiko Otsuka and Yoshiki Usa. Multiple sources also note that Edgerunners is returning for a second season on October 20. The first season premiered in 2022 and, according to Polygon, arrived after Cyberpunk 2077’s troubled launch period, helping draw attention back to a game that had been substantially reworked through updates and fixes.
Northeast Times reports that Nowakowski said game sales rose around the first Edgerunners premiere and remained above pre-premiere levels for months afterward. Gagadget and Northeast Times also state that Cyberpunk 2077 has sold more than 40 million copies. Those numbers explain why CD Projekt has an incentive to keep Cyberpunk visible between major game releases through anime, film, tabletop products, comics, and merchandise.
Still, Edgerunners cannot be treated as a guaranteed model for the film. Animation, especially in Studio Trigger’s hands, can bend violence, movement, and anatomy into images that live action has to solve with choreography, visual effects, costuming, and budget. A Night City movie can learn from Edgerunners’ independence from V’s plot, but it will face a different set of problems when it has to stage chrome-heavy combat, dense urban spectacle, and intimate identity horror with actors and physical scenes.
The movie still has to earn its own crew
CD Projekt’s confirmation removes one burden and creates another. If the film is not leaning on the emotional familiarity of V, Johnny Silverhand, Panam, Judy, Rogue, or the game’s major quest lines, then its new characters have to carry the weight. Night City is a strong frame, but a frame does not replace a protagonist with a clear want, a credible wound, and a reason to keep moving when the city starts cutting back.
This is the risk in any original game adaptation. TheGamer argues that adapting long games one-to-one can be a poor fit because dozens of hours of interactive storytelling rarely compress cleanly into a feature film. That logic applies especially hard to Cyberpunk 2077, where side stories and player-defined rhythm are central to how the game lands. At the same time, skipping the game’s plot means the movie cannot coast on recognition alone. The set pieces need a dramatic spine.
From an action-adventure lens, the strongest Cyberpunk film would need to make its combat rhythm legible. The game can let players feel power through builds: blades, netrunning, smart weapons, stealth, cyberware, or brute-force firefights. A film has to translate that into visual grammar. Who has the advantage in a room? What does a hack look like before the audience loses track of the danger? How does cyberware change a chase, a duel, or a betrayal without becoming digital noise?
Those are creative questions, not confirmed details. CD Projekt has not described the plot, tone, rating, protagonist, or timeline. But Nowakowski’s comments make one expectation safer than the rest: the movie’s central momentum should come from a fresh conflict inside the Cyberpunk world, not from watching a checklist version of the game’s main missions.
How fans should set expectations now
The safest reading is simple: do not expect the Cyberpunk 2077 movie to be the game with the dialogue wheel removed. CD Projekt has confirmed the project is meant to tell a story in the world of Cyberpunk and not translate the game’s plot one-to-one. Anything beyond that, including cameos, continuity placement, specific districts, returning actors, or whether Keanu Reeves could be involved, remains unannounced in the provided source material.
That leaves room for several possibilities. The film could be set in Night City near the events of the game, years before or after them, or in a corner of the city the game touched only briefly. It could acknowledge familiar corporations and neighborhoods without making V’s journey central. It could follow mercenaries, corporate operators, fixers, netrunners, or ordinary citizens caught in machinery bigger than themselves. Those are possibilities suggested by the setting, not confirmed plot points.
For players, the practical guidance is to wait for production announcements before treating this as a movie with a near-term release. There is no confirmed cast, director, release date, or trailer. The major confirmed pieces are CD Projekt’s stated creative direction, Paramount’s involvement, the expired Anonymous Content deal, and di Bonaventura’s reported producer role.
The interesting part is that CD Projekt is telling fans early not to expect a direct V and Johnny retelling. That may disappoint anyone hoping for a definitive live-action version of Cyberpunk 2077’s main story, but it also prevents the movie from being trapped by a campaign built for choice, detours, and player ownership. If the Night City movie works, it will be because it finds a new pulse inside the same neon pressure cooker, then keeps that pulse steady all the way to the final cut.