Misty Olszewski is the heart and soul of Cyberpunk 2077. Instead of decking herself out with chrome, she’s collecting tarot decks. Rather than climbing the corporate ladder, she’s running an esoterica and renting out space to one of the few Ripperdocs with a scrap of ethics in Night City.
This all speaks to a character who is very self-assured in her own beliefs, calmly sticking by them and living life as she pleases, even as the world would mock and overlook her. So, it’s surprising to hear that Misty was ever envisioned any differently and wasn’t supposed to have much of a role in the game at all.
The Making Of Cyberpunk 2077’s Narrative, As Told By Paweł Sasko And Cherami Leigh
Five years ago, Cyberpunk 2077 asked us what it means to live on after we die.
Indeed, in earlier drafts of Cyberpunk 2077, that was the case. Misty’s actor, Erica Lindbeck, told me this as we chatted about some of her biggest projects over the years. Two of these roles can be found in Cyberpunk – Misty and Meredith – but it was the latter who was originally a bit more fleshed out.
How Misty Went From A Side Character To One Of V’s Only Friends In Night City
“The character that I booked in Cyberpunk was Meredith, and then Misty was a random side character that they threw me,” Lindbeck says. “We recorded her several times because we didn’t know what to do with her.”
Lindbeck continues, explaining what this original version of Misty (“Punished Misty”, as she calls her) was like. “She’s a little silly, and maybe vapid. She’s not vapid, [in the final game] by the way, I don’t think she’s vapid at all, at the very beginning she only had a few lines.” She gives me a line read from this original Misty (“Babe, your chakras are all out of whack!”) and laughs. “I just hated it,” he admits. “I went, ‘Oh, my God, what are we gonna do?'”
Thankfully, this is where the redrafts came in, overhauling Misty’s character. “We ended up with this soft, New Jersey Harley Quinn thing. And now she’s one of my favourite characters I’ve ever voiced,” Lindbeck says. “I love her so much. And they kept writing more and more and more for her, so that Misty became a much bigger character than Meredith.”
In fact, Lindbeck says Misty’s popularity caught her by surprise. Originally, she didn’t have any Misty prints at her booth when she attended conventions – something she has since amended after getting asked about the character at these cons. Through these appearances, she also says that she saw Cyberpunk 2077 get a “second wind” after its initial launch, due in no small part to the Phantom Liberty expansion, which gave Misty even more importance in the story.
- Released
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December 10, 2020
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
