Keanu Reeves somehow lands starring role in BRZRKR, an adaptation of the comic he co-writes

John Wick really propelled Keanu Reeves into a nice second renaissance (that’s a Matrix reference), allowing him to pop up in funny, self-deprecating cameos and once-unthinkable sequels, but now he has somehow pulled off an even more impressive and unexpected career move—nah, just kidding. This was all very clearly planned and structured well in advance.

Anyway, Netflix announced this week that Reeves is going to be starring in multiple adaptations (both a live-action movie and an anime tie-in) of BRZRKR, a new hit comic book that he created for Boom! Studios, that he co-writes with Matt Kindt, and that he already basically stars in because the main character looks just like him (the comic art is done by Ron Garney and Bill Crabtree). So yeah, Reeves basically made this happen, but he’s earned the right to make a comic book about a guy who looks just like him and also to turn that comic book into a movie he stars in.

BRZRKR is about an immortal murder-man who has lived for 80,000 violent years, killing everyone he can while gradually becoming exhausted with his miserable existence. Eventually, he takes a job murdering people for the U.S. government in exchange for information about how he became an immortal murder-man and how he can finally end his own life. The similarities to The Old Guard (which is also based on a comic and is also on Netflix) are hard to ignore, but they seem to be coming from different places tonally. That one was largely about people who happen to be immortal making the most of their never-ending lives, while this one seems to be about a guy who would like to stop being immortal. Also, one has a famous movie star, and the other has another famous movie star. Totally different films.