The internet’s ongoing love affair with Keanu Reeves continues to show longevity as of Monday, with reports from the trades announcing a live-action adaptation and forthcoming animated series expanding on Reeves’ hit comic debut, Brzrkr, for Netflix.
Reeves penned the comic which campaigned on Kickstarter last year through its launch the following October, publishing then by BOOM! Studios. New York Times bestselling co-writer Matt Kindt (Folklords, Bang!) also wrote the limited 12-issue series with Alessandro Vitti (Marvel’s Secret Warriors), colorist Bill Crabtree (BRPD), and letterer Clem Robins (Hellboy) providing the illustrative and textual touch-ups for the finished product.
BOOM!’s Brzrkr centers on the titular half-mortal/half-God “cursed and compelled to violence…even at the sacrifice of his sanity. But after wandering the world for centuries, Berzerker may have finally found a refuge – working for the U.S. government to fight the battles too violent and too dangerous for anyone else. In exchange, Berzerker will be granted the one thing he desires – the truth about his endless blood-soaked existence…and how to end it.”
Just as he will appear in the film, Reeves will also voice-perform for the animated series which, according to Deadline, “will expand the BRZRKR universe by exploring different elements of the story”.
Reeves has maintained some phenomenal shelflife for today’s audiences long since his heyday as the star of two Bill & Ted movies, actioners like Speed, Chain Reaction, Johnny Mneumonic, and The Matrix Trilogy to name a few, and even garnering some memefare following his over-the-top self-portrayal opposite Randall Park in Netflix’s Ali Wong romancer, Always Be My Maybe, to name a few.
Adding to his contemporary resurgence upon birthing a new action franchise in 2014’s John Wick to which a fourth film will commence photography this Spring, the actor contributed his likeness to the pivotal role of Johnny Silverhand in the CD Projekt RED sci-fi action game, Cyberpunk 2077, a performance that would allude to the creative endeavors of filmmakers for their own fan shorts; Vi-Dan Tran’s Cyberpunk 2077: Phoenix Program starring Maul Cosplay is a favorite that comes to mind.
The actor, whose credits of late, in part further include Bill & Ted Face The Music and Replicas, is also set for a fourth, new chapter of the Matrix saga which is expected to debut in North America on HBO Max and in theaters later this year.
For Brzrkr, Reeves is producing alongside BOOM!’s Ross Richie and Stephen Christy, and Company Films’s own Stephen Hamel. BOOM!’s Adam Yoelin will exec produce.