Well, it’s official: a film adaptation of the hugely popular open-world role-playing game, Cyberpunk 2077, is on the way, a development that is hardly surprising. In fact, it felt downright inevitable, not just because it has sold over 40 million copies, but also due to the neon-soaked futuristic sci-fi world that the game’s developer, Polish company CD Projekt Red, realized in such immersive fashion. Yet, confirmation of this film adaptation immediately left fans wondering if the celebrity face of the video game’s story and marketing, Keanu Reeves, will reprise his role as Johnny Silverhand in some capacity, a debate that is sure to rage on into the foreseeable future.
For those who don’t know, Cyberpunk 2077, as it happens, is not an original IP from CD Projekt Red, but rather an adaptation of Mike Pondsmith’s 1988 tabletop role-playing game, evoking a world that is something of a cross between Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and the William Gibson novel Neuromancer, both of which are seminal entries in the science fiction genre, regardless of medium. In Cyberpunk, society is ruled by “megacorporations” (or MegaCorps) that operate more like sovereign states than bodies of business, controlling their own private armies and economies, transcending any ostensible government oversight.
After the immense critical and commercial success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – which is itself another adaptation, this time of The Witcher series of novels written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski – fans were clamouring for CD Projekt Red’s next game, which they had already confirmed to be Cyberpunk 2077, having first announced their intention to adapt the tabletop game back in 2012, before the world even knew about their third instalment of The Witcher.
Hype for Cyberpunk 2077 reached a fever pitch when it was revealed in a trailer at the Microsoft E3 showcase in June 2019 that none other than Keanu Reeves (who consequently walked out onto the stage) would be portraying the anti-establishment anarchist Johnny Silverhand, a legendary figure in the tabletop lore who had seemingly died decades prior to the events of the video game.
One of the most anticipated games of 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 released in December of that year and quickly became one of the most infamous and controversial game drops of all time, due to the fact that it released in a shockingly buggy and broken state, especially on the PlayStation 4 and XBOX One consoles, upon which the game is still pretty much unplayable to this day.
What followed is too long and complicated a story to get into here, but suffice to say, CD Projekt Red’s reputation took an enormous hit, representing one of the most precipitous falls from grace in the history of gaming. However, the developer continued to work on and update the game, slowly clamouring back the goodwill of the gaming community, aided greatly by the increased power of the next generation of consoles, the PlayStation 5 and XBOX Series X, eventually delivering the game they had always promised and intended.
Even amid the shitstorm that was Cyberpunk 2077’s initial release, one point of frequent praise and appreciation was the game’s dynamic stories and the presence of Reeves as Johnny Silverhand, who is now considered an iconic figure in the gaming community. For the countless fans of the game, news of the film adaptation begs the question as to whether or not Reeves will make an appearance, but it is yet impossible to confirm since it is so early in the production process, to the point that they have not even announced a director or screenwriter.
What we do know, though, is that it will be made by Paramount Pictures, and (for better or for worse) Lorenza di Bonaventura will serve as the adaptation’s producer, who admittedly has a pretty poor track record, with stinkers to his name such as Madame Web, Jupiter’s Legacy, and another video game adaptation, 2005’s Doom, which is regarded as one of the worst movies ever made. However, di Bonaventura is best known for producing the Transformers film franchise, which hardly inspires much more confidence, but with at least two solid Transformers entries under his belt, Bumblebee and Transformers One, there is still hope that the Cyberpunk 2077 film adaptation with the right filmmakers behind it, not to mention CD Projekt Red will also be involved in the process.
It is fair to assume that they will not be adapting the story of 2077’s main character, V, as the announcement stated that the film will be “a live-action film set in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe,” which frankly makes more sense given the wealth of narrative approaches offered by the world of Cyberpunk and its central location, Night City. While that doesn’t necessarily bode well for Reeves’ chances of appearing in the film, it certainly does not rule him out either; it just might be another while before we know one way or the other.