Summary
For those of us who were introduced to the world of Cyberpunk throughCyberpunk 2077, it’s hard to imagine Johnny Silverhand as anything other than the greasy rockerboy thatCD Projekt Redgave us. However, in the source material, he was very different, looking a whole lot like David Bowie.
Despite this, series creator Mike Pondsmith understood that the character design needed to be changed to better fit what modern audiences imagine when they picture a rock star - he just wasn’t expecting Keanu Reeves to be playing him. This had nothing to do with the look, but rather the personality, because as he puts it, Reeves is just too damn nice.
Mike Pondsmith Didn’t Expect Keanu Reeves To Be Cast As Johnny Silverhand
This comes from atalkat Digital Dragons 2025, in which Pondsmith discussed some of the changes made in Cyberpunk 2077, with one of the biggest being Johnny’s new look.
“I said, you got Keanu Reeves? He’s too nice to be Johnny,” Pondsmith laughs. “Johnny is an asshole. He has reasons to be, but yeah, Johnny was not a nice guy.”
Despite this initial apprehension, he didn’t object to the decision. “I didn’t have any problems once I understood where they were going with it,” he explains.
In the end, casting Reeves was probably one of the best decisions made during development. His charisma gave usthe famous “you’re breathtaking!” moment at E3 2019. His performance in the game was also fantastic, making himtheJohnny Silverhand for many players. With Reeves, we get a character that’s still an asshole, but an asshole that you may’t help but go along with, giving him chance after chance to do the right thing.
Reeves was also very, very understanding about the fact thata whole lot of players wanted to get freaky with his character. He said it’s “nice” that players were that attracted to his digital avatar, so I suppose you don’t have to feel guilty if you downloaded a mod that lets you get down and dirty with Johnny.
