Keanu Reeves would 'love to play Johnny Silverhand again' in Cyberpunk 2⁠—but that'd be a tough needle to thread with how the first game ends

Cyberpunk 2077 character Johnny Silverhand with arms crossed looks away from the camera and smiles

(Image credit: Tyler C. / CD Projekt)

In a recent interview with IGN, Keanu Reeves offered a spark of hope that he may return as foul-mouthed rockerboy Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2, the currently in preproduction follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077. This is far from a confirmation, though, and the original game's many ending permutations complicate the character's potential return.

Asked if he'd be willing to reprise the character in Cyberpunk 2⁠—formerly codenamed Project Orion⁠—Reeves said: "Absolutely, I'd love to play Johnny Silverhand again." And that's it, that's all he said on the matter. But it's more than we had previously, and it also raises questions as to how CDPR could continue his story.

A very remote possibility is reflecting Cyberpunk 2077 choices through Witcher or Mass Effect-style save importing, but that doesn't feel like a good fit. 2077 was a very personal, self-contained story, one where putting in that effort doesn't particularly feel worth it. That's also before you consider that we likely won't even see Cyberpunk 2 before 2030⁠—10 years after Cyberpunk 2077's release⁠—and that it'd be a pretty crazy ask to cut Keanu Reeves a check for content not all players will see.

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Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.

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