'BRZRKR': Keanu Reeves To Star As Immortal Warrior In A Netflix Movie And An Anime Series
People have spent years joking about how Keanu Reeves is immortal, but now the actor is about to play an undying warrior – twice.
The Matrix star is set to star in a BRZRKR movie based on his new comic book series about a warrior who has been fighting for 80,000 years, and he'll also lend his voice to an anime series that will expand the world seen in the comics and the movie. Both BRZRKR projects are lined up at Netflix.Last year, Reeves added "comic book writer" to his impressive resume when he cooked up the story for the Boom! Studios comic BRZRKR, which he co-wrote with Matt Kindt. The 12-issue comic follows a character who looks an awful lot like Reeves who performs dangerous tasks for the United States government in exchange for information about his past, which is a familiar-sounding story that we've seen depicted in various media many times before. But hopefully Reeves will be able to bring something fresh to that formula, because he's officially set to star in and produce the live-action film, and he will also reprise his role and voice his character in a spin-off anime series. Here's the official description:
"[BRZRKR is a] brutally epic saga about an immortal warrior's 80,000 year fight through the ages. The man known only as "B" is half-mortal and half-god, cursed and compelled to violence...even at the sacrifice of his sanity. But after wandering the earth for centuries, B 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, B will be granted the one thing he desires – the truth about his endless blood-soaked existence...and how to end it."
The movie will adapt the events of the comic book run, while the anime series "will further expand the BRZRKR universe by exploring different elements of the story," according to a Netflix press release. The first issue of the comic series was once reported to debut last October, but it ended up coming out on March 3, 2021, and Netflix says the inaugural issue has already sold 615,000 copies, "making it the highest-selling launch in almost thirty years."
The idea of Netflix locking this down is not surprising, but they do already have an active "franchise" that covers very similar thematic ground in The Old Guard, which starred Charlize Theron as an immortal warrior. That film is supposed to be the first in a trilogy, so I'll be curious to see if Netflix actually moves ahead with both that and BRZRKR or if The Old Guard 2 ends up getting pushed to the side.