Cyberpunk creator says ‘Contact me’ after Keanu Reeves said he wants to be Johnny Silverhand again, then tries his luck and tells Scarlett Johansson, ‘I have roles for you. You can do anything’

Egotist, terrorist, lovable scamp: these are descriptors I associate with Johnny Silverhand, the Cyberpunk setting’s mashup of David Bowie and Andreas Baader, who was played by Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077. Reeves, god bless him, hasn’t been shy about voicing his desire to play the character again. Which sounds like it’d be pretty tough, given his story is pretty well wrapped-up in 2077 and his actual mortal body has already been dead for decades by that game’s start.

Or so you might think. But that, and no other reason, is why you aren’t Cyberpunk TTRPG creator Mike Pondsmith. In a recent stream (via GamesRadar), Pondsmith sounded just as eager as Reeves to get the Hollywood star back into Silverhand’s big boots. “You know, not that long ago, I saw that Keanu would like to find a way to come back from the dead and play Johnny again,” said Pondsmith. “I have ways to do that, Keanu. Contact me.”

What ways? Well, canny old Pondsmith doesn’t say. I don’t think it’s hard to figure out a few plausible theories, though. You could always just say there’s another chip with Johnny’s engram on it, for one thing. Though personally? I’d be into some sort of prequel story that goes into more detail about what really happened with Johnny and co’s assault on Arasaka Tower back in the day.

CP2077 doesn’t go into much detail about this, but it’s clear that the memories of Johnny’s we see in-game aren’t quite accurate. For one thing, we know Morgan Blackhand played some sort of role in the attack, but we don’t see or hear anything about him from Johnny’s POV.

Anyway, Reeves isn’t the only celeb Pondsmith’s extending a hand to. He recalls the first time he saw Idris Elba as Phantom Liberty’s Solomon Reed. “‘You know, guys, are we going to get in trouble?'” He remembers asking CD Projekt RED. “‘Because that guy looks a lot like Idris Elba. He’s probably gonna sue.'”

CDPR, of course, explained that it had gotten the actual Idris Elba. “‘So let me get this straight,'” replied Pondsmith. “‘You got Keanu Reeves, and then you turn around and get Idris Elba. What’s next? Scarlett Johansson?”

The wish is father to the thought, on that one. “Scarlett, you know, I have roles for you. You can do anything.” So brace yourself to jam a ScarJo chip in your head at some point in Cyberpunk 2.