In an interview with ScreenRant ahead of the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Idris Elba expressed a desire to return to Night City with his Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty co-star, Keanu Reeves, ideally for a live-action project.
When asked if he had any interest in such a project, Elba said that “I think if any film could do a live-action rendition, it could be [Cyberpunk 2077], and I think [Reeves’] character and my character together would be ‘Whoa.’ So let’s speak that into existence.”
Keeanu Reeves’ role as Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077 risked being a stunt casting on the order of Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean’s sleepy, limited appearances in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. But not only was Reeves well-utilized, with Silverhand your constant companion commenting on even the most throwaway side quests, he also knocked it out of the park with a layered performance as the blustery terrorist with a heart of gold. CDPR followed this up with another great celebrity casting in the Phantom Liberty expansion, with Elba’s Solomon Reed stealing the show as a sleeper agent spy looking to come in from the cold—even if that meant hurting people he’d come to care about.
CD Projekt is currently pursuing a live-action Cyberpunk something, but the aspirational tone of Elba’s statement makes it sound like he hasn’t gotten any calls about it. A big complication to Elba and Reeves getting a big screen Cyberpunk reunion is that their stories were pretty neatly wrapped up in the game. While the door might be open for any number of digital ghost gestalt Johnny Silverhand shenanigans down the line, Solomon Reed ends Phantom Liberty thoroughly jaded and in some manner of “too old for this shit” retirement as a best case scenario.
Any future live-action outings in Night City will depend on the success of CDPR’s upcoming project, but even if it’s an Edgerunners-level blowout success, I find it hard to imagine a scenario where Elba and Reeves would appear opposite each other as Reed and Silverhand in a follow-up. More than anything, I’m just charmed and heartened to hear that Elba seems to have had a good time working on Phantom Liberty and thinks of it fondly—his performance as Reed really was a highlight of that phenomenal expansion pack.
