Warning: Spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077 lie ahead.
Tabletop wizard and cool glasses-wearer Mike Pondsmith has teased having “ways” to bring Johnny Silverhand back in Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel. Actor and serial whoa merchant Keanu Reeves hasn’t been shy about being open to reprising the role were the opportunity to crash through his door waving some mantis blades about, but reconciling such a thing with the events of the first game could prove a bit complex.
This isn’t the first time Pondsmith’s let loose potential details about Cyberpunk 2, which developers CD Projekt have otherwise remained pretty tight-lipped about while they work away at it. Back in May, he alluded to having chatted to a dev at the studio about a city which “feels more like Chicago gone wrong” that’s visited during the course of the game.
Pondsmith said more words during a recent interview on a CD Projekt livestream. “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,” he mentioned, alluding to Reeves’ declariation of being down to return to the role. “I have ways to do that, Keanu. Contact me.”
The tabletop man refused to elaborate any further, as people who mention having mysterious ways to accomplish things often do. I assume the obvious way would be to have a Punch and Judy-style Silverhand puppet narrate the main menu, as the moon man of fellow RPG The Outer Worlds 2 does. Think about it, every time there’s a plot twist, he can have a sarcastic moan about you, a gonk, having gonkishly erred in trusting certain chooms, gonkishly. He’d have seen it coming years before you did, gonkchoom.
In all seriousness, the only answers that’d make much sense would be if the sequel turns out to be a prequel to the events of the first game, or leans into flashback at certain points as that first Cyberpunk does. Either that, or some nonsense about there being extra hard drives knocking about somewhere in the real or net bits of the Cyberpunk universe with even more copies of the Silversonality on them.
Personally, I think I’d prefer it if Silverhand’s story concluded in the first game, and the sequel moves on to fresh ground with minimal retreading. A brief cameo via flashback might be cool, but isn’t worth doing just for the sake of it. In this interview, Pondsmith mentioned how blown away he was by CD Projekt getting Idris Elba for Phantom Liberty, and half jokes that he’d like to see Scarlett Johansson next. Sure, why not, but I reckon Cyberpunk’s better off not being totally stuffed to the gills with every celeb possible, like a cyberware-heavy Christmas pantomime. That’s what keeps the odd cameo in a role which fits the actor being cast feeling special.
