It’s a great time to be a Keanu Reeves fan. The release date for John Wick: Chapter 4 (the latest installment in one of the best action movie series of all time) is right around the corner, and a fifth Wick film is already confirmed. And after fifteen years of loyal DC fans clamoring for it, a sequel to 2005’s Constantine has officially been greenlit. There is no shortage of Keanu content for fans looking for it. Reeves spends a lot of time playing badasses, but what does he do in his free time? Pitch his own stories, of course, and that includes an idea for a superhero movie that became a comic book.
The Matrix actor appeared on the late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! to discuss the upcoming release of his comic book series, BRZRKR (pronounced Berzerker). The conversation quickly pivoted into his love for comic books. Reeves told an adorable little anecdote about how his confusion about the nature of a general meeting went from him thinking he was pitching an idea for a movie only to realize he had been asked to come in to pitch a comic book. The actor told the late-night host:
I love telling stories. I had this idea, and I went to a general meeting and I met with this company called Boom! Studios, I was talking to them [Boom!], and they were talking to me. They said, 'Do you have any ideas?' And I said, 'Yeah, I have this idea of this guy who could punch through people's chests and rip their arms out. And he was born 80,000 years ago.' And they kind of went, 'Excuse me, do you want to make a comic? And I kind of started to look around where I was, and I noticed all these comic books. And I was like, absolutely, I want to make a comic book, because I went there thinking it was maybe an idea for a film… but I love comics, and I have never done it before, and they helped put together a super team–another writer, Matt Kindt, and a legendary artist, Ron Garneyt.
Of course, Keanu Reeves assumed it was a movie he was pitching. A simple enough mistake to make whenever you're as busy a guy as he is. But perhaps, if the comic book is popular enough, a film adaptation isn't out of the realm of possibility. Jimmy Kimmel joked about the main character of the comic series (known simply as B) looking strikingly like Reeves. The host even asked whether the star had intentionally requested the artists design the lead character to look like him. It was a line of questioning that made the actor visibly blush before he nodded his head in confirmation. He also said:
But, to be fair, I’m really right for the role.
I tend to agree with the actor. You can see his full interview down below:
BRZRKR tells the story of a centuries-year-old half-human and half-god who is roped into fighting the bloody battles the US Government deems too gruesome and dangerous, even for them. It sounds like the B-level action movie greatness that gets me excited and that I would love to see brought to the big screen. Until then, I guess I’ll just have to read BRZRKR Vol. 1, available now from Boom! Studios.
Until a BRZRKR adaptation is finally greenlit, you can enjoy Keanu in Constantine on streaming with an HBO max subscription or in John Wick: Chapter 4 when it releases in March 2023. For all other 2023 movie releases.
