New Cyberpunk 2077 Trailers Feature Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Silverhand Character

CD Projekt Red shared new footage from Cyberpunk 2077 this week in its fifth episode of the ongoing Night City Wire series. The developer announced plans for this particular episode nearly a week ago and said it’d be focusing largely on Keanu Reeves’ character, Johnny Silverhand, in the episode, something that people would be hard-pressed to object to. The event featured in-game scenes featuring Reeves’ character as well as a behind-the-scenes talk with Reeves himself about his work in the game.

Throughout the previous previews of Cyberpunk 2077 we’ve seen that featured Johnny Silverhand, the character appears out of nowhere to speak to the protagonist, V. It’s an unusual sight even for everything else that goes on in Cyberpunk 2077, and according to other residents of Night City, Johnny Silverhand was a terrorist who’s been dead for years. That doesn’t stop the character from appearing constantly in players’ heads, however.

After showing a brief trailer focusing on Reeves’ character, the actor shared some insights into what it was like to play the role. He said one of the things he enjoyed most about the character was that it allowed him to play different a few different types of characters all in one since Johnny Silverhand’s responses inspired by his humor, rock star persona, and other characteristics change depending on how players respond to the character. He talked about the complexity of Johnny Silverhand and how many personalities and traits went into the character while saying he thinks “there’s a Johnny Silverhand in all of us.”

As we’ve seen the developers mention in the past about Johnny Silverhand, he’s much more than just an NPC that players will deal with throughout the game. CD Projekt Red said during the Night City Wire episode that it’d be more accurate to consider Johnny Silverhand to be a “co-protagonist” than anything else in Cyberpunk 2077. He’s got his own motives and ambitions, CD Projekt Red said, and it sounds like those plans may not always line up with what the players controlling V want to do.

Cyberpunk 2077 is scheduled to launch on December 10th, so expect to see much more of Reeves’ Johnny Silverhand character when the game releases.