Keanu Reeves has been many different Guys throughout his career. WithThe Matrix movies, Johnny Mnemonic, A Scanner Darkly, andCyberpunk 2077under his belt, he’s The Sci-Fi Guy. His intense commitment to highly physical roles in movies like Point Break, Speed, and the Matrix andJohn Wickquartets made him The Action Guy. Thanks to funny, self-aware, supporting turns in Always Be My Maybe, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, Keanu, DC League of Super-Pets, and Toy Story 4, he’s The Cameo Guy.
Keanu Reeves Is The Video Game Guy
Most recently though, he’s become The Video Game Guy. You could argue that this actually started all the way back in 2003, when Reeves reprised his role as Neo forEnter the Matrix, a tie-in PS2-era game that served as a cornerstone of the Wachowskis' transmedia ambitions at the time. The filmmaking duo even shot an hour-plus of live-action footage for the game. But, Reeves and video games have become more overtly and consistently connected in recent years, beginning with the star’s appearance at theXboxE3 press conference in 2019.
Reeves crashing the Xbox conference could have been a mere gimmick to drum up even greater hype for the most-hyped game at the time, but when Cyberpunk came out, it was clear that Reeves was actually a central character. Johnny Silverhand was the rockstar devil on V’s shoulder. Given the game’s rocky reception, I expected Reeves to retreat from CD Projekt Red’s open-world RPG, and video game work in general. But, whenPhantom Libertylaunched, Reeves was right there as a new generation’s sweary Navi.
Interestingly, for the expansion, Reeves was joined by Idris Elba, who he worked alongside on another video game-related project, the forthcomingSonic the Hedgehog 3.
Cyberpunk, The Matrix, And Sonic Have One Thing In Common
Between Cyberpunk 2077 and its popular expansion, Reeves took on another video game project, The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience. This was much smaller scale than Cyberpunk, a tech demo, not a full game. But it was a graphically impressive showcase for Epic’s new technology. Live-action footage of Reeves and co-star Carrie-Ann Moss was often near-indistinguishable from their virtual iterations. This was basically a shiny piece of tie-in advertising for the soon-to-launch engine and the forthcoming Matrix Resurrections, but the corporate synergy didn’t stop it from being a cool demonstration of what next-gen gaming could look like.
It looked like Keanu Reeves.
Most recently, Reeves has taken on the role of Shadow, gaming’s hottest and edgiest hedgehog, in the third live-action Sonic movie. But his involvement didn’t stop with the adaptation. Sega recently announced thatReeves has voiced dialogue for Sonic X Shadow Generations, which will be available through a Movie Pack DLC where players will utlise a skin based on Shadows' appearance in the upcoming movie.
Reeves is an interesting star because he doesn’t do anything halfway. When he talks about doing fight choreography inthis conversationwith direct-to-video action star and martial artist Scott Adkins, you can tell that Reeves has an inexhaustible love for the process, despite being 60 years old. He did a ton of voice work and mocap for Cyberpunk 2077. He was filmed helping crew members carry equipment up the stairs to Sacré-Coeur. As John Wick: Chapter 4 was fond of reminding us, the way you do anything is the way you’ll do everything. So, it’s unsurprising that Reeves has embraced video games with his trademark gusto.
