The Untold Truth Of Cyberpunk 2077's Johnny Silverhand
Night City, the setting for Cyberpunk 2077, is the dystopian tech world of the future, and its inhabitants are desperate to do whatever it takes to crawl out of the squalor of poverty and make it to the big leagues. But there are others who are calling for revolution, and many of the downtrodden are seeking the help of one man in particular: Johnny Silverhand. His name is whispered in the streets, and graffiti throughout the city's dirty back alleys asks the question: "Where's Johnny?"
Before its release as a video game, Cyberpunk started out as a tabletop RPG created by Mike Pondsmith. Johnny made his first appearance in Cyberpunk 2013, released in 1988. The game had a number of sequels, including Cyberpunk 2020, Cyberpunk V3.0, and Cyberpunk Red. Thanks to various sourcebooks for the games created by Pondsmith and others, a series of narratives gives fans a look into Johnny's backstory.
Keanu Reeves has taken on the role of Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077, much to the excitement of fans. Ever since Reeves made his first appearance as Johnny Silverhand in the game's cinematic teaser, fans have been asking the question: Just who is Johnny Silverhand?
The creator's wife predicted that Keanu would be Johnny Silverhand
In 2019, Video Game Chronicles sat down with Mike Pondsmith for an interview about Cyberpunk 2077, and as it turned out, Pondsmith's wife predicted that Reeves would get the part before CD Projekt Red even told them the news.
According to Pondsmith, the studio wanted to surprise him with the reveal during one of their meetings in Warsaw, but Pondsmith's wife had already surmised who the big star would be. "My wife guessed it the night before," Pondsmith admitted. "I said they had an actor they wanted me to see for Johnny Silverhand and she looked up and said, 'it's Keanu Reeves.' And I said, 'nah, they'll never get Keanu Reeves!'" Pondsmith was mistaken: "So we're sitting there at CDPR and they're about to tell us. They go, 'can you guess who it is?' And my wife goes, 'yep, Keanu Reeves' and they looked heartbroken. I had to reassure them, 'no, no — that's really cool! You really got him!'"
It may have just been a lucky guess, but considering Reeves' penchant for playing sci-fi action heroes, it was a good one.
They made a real-life Johnny Silverhand arm
If you think Johnny Silverhand's cyber arm would look cool in real life, you're not alone. Thanks to prosthetics specialists, Johnny's arm is now a very real possibility.
Limbitless Solutions is a nonprofit organization which makes bionic prosthetics for children in need, and soon for adults as well. Limbitless teamed up with Xbox to recreate Johnny Silverhand's iconic cyber arm and showed off the result in an inspiring YouTube video. Remy Marasa of Limbitless Solutions expressed her excitement for the project, saying, "When I first heard that we would be doing this project with Johnny Silverhand, I was really excited to be able to bring such a developed character out of their video game and into the real world."
The video also goes on to show the impressive machinery and detailed hands-on work that went into making the Johnny Silverhand arm. "We used a lot of new techniques on this arm that we hadn't done before," explained Marasa. "We really pushed ourselves to a new level, and to see that final product was really rewarding."
To learn more about the incredible work being done by Limbitless Solutions, you can visit them at limbitless-solutions.org.
Johnny has a drink named after him, and you can get one in the game
If you're a fan of the YouTube channel How to Drink, then you know what a huge nerd Greg Titian is. He's a professional mixologist who creates his own unique cocktails based on movies, TV shows, video games, and more.
These drinks are just from Titian's own imagination, of course, but when How to Drink did an episode on how to make a Johnny Silverhand cocktail, a designer from Cyberpunk 2077 took notice. Patrick K. Mills — who it turns out is a big fan of the channel — said he enjoyed Titian's video so much that the game's designers decided to make a drink that looked just like it in the game.
Mills tagged Titian in his tweet about the drink on Nov. 25, which thrilled the YouTube creator to no end. Titian replied to the tweet that he was "blown away" by the news and said that he couldn't wait to play the game and check it out. In the How to Drink video, the Johnny Silverhand is made with a dark ale, tequila, orange bitters, simple syrup, and a chili pepper garnish.