This artist predicted Idris Elba in Cyberpunk 2077 two years ago
The Silverhand he was dealt.
Last week, we got the news that none other than Idris Elba would be part of Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion. This news was, for many of us, a very welcome surprise.
However, Hungarian digital artist Zsolt Kosa actually envisioned this collaboration much, much, earlier. Perhaps, even before developer CD Projekt Red did.
Two years ago, Kosa shared two mocked up posters of Elba in Cyberpunk 2077 to his ArtStation page. The first of these shows Elba with ice blue cyber-eyes and an impressively collared coat (as shown in this article's header image). The second shows him with some rather fancy looking sunglasses, and that same very fetching coat.
I had reached out to Kosa after seeing Phantom Liberty's new trailer to congratulate him on his Cyberpunk prediction, and to find how it felt to see his creation realised.
"When I first read the news I got goosebumps and couldn't stop smiling for hours," Kosa tells me, commenting that he loves Elba's strong presence on the screen. "I still can't believe it. Seeing my idea become a reality is always exciting."
Kosa previously worked in the gaming industry for ten years, contributing on "various casual games" as a 2D artist. He then moved on to create a variety of fashion designs for companies such as Blizzard and Warner Bros. His work has even made it to The National Gallery in London.
"Back in Budapest we built a small 2D outsource studio, and provided artworks for many awesome projects," Kosa shares. "Then I started to fill out a gap in my toolset, and created a few Photoshop brush sets. It turned out other artists were finding them useful as well, so kept creating."
Kosa tells me he is now one of the top sellers on Artstation, with his Idris Elba pieces just being two of many. So, does this mean that Kosa will go back to creating (and perhaps predicting) more Cyberpunk 2077 roles? Well, he does think it would be great to see Tom Hardy or Zoe Saldana on the streets of Night City. I have to agree, these are some pretty strong choices.
CD Projekt, if you are reading this, perhaps a little idea for Cyberpunk's upcoming sequel?
Phantom Liberty is set to release next year for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more on the most recent trailer, you can check out all the details that caught my attention in my breakdown here.