Following an interview with Esquire, Keanu Reeves, famous for his roles in the John Wick movies and The Matrix trilogy, was recently questioned as to whether he believes the characters he plays should appear in the Mortal Kombat franchise. Reeves had quite the interesting take on events, which was followed by a response from Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon.
Keanu Reeves has been a well-known actor for decades now, and more recently the John Wick films have reminded us all that Reeves can certainly still be a heavy-hitting action star. With the violence seen in John Wick especially, and the fact that the character has already appeared in Fortnite, made many wonder whether we would see the gun-fu master as a guest character for the gory fighting game series Mortal Kombat.
Reeves however, seemed to be hesitant about bringing either Neo or John Wick to the Mortal Kombat tournament. Speaking to Esquire, Wick said while "Mortal Kombat is awesome in so many ways... But Neo and John Wick are doing their own thing." While it was disappointing for many fans to hear that the actor who played Reeves wouldn't like to see two of his most famous characters duke it out with Scorpion and Sub-Zero, the teasing and speculation didn't stop there.
Taking to Twitter in his usual fashion, Mortal Kombat co-creator and original voice of Scorpion Ed Boon responded to Reeves' statement. Referencing when Reeves took to the stage at E3 back in 2019, Boon said: "No YOU'RE awesome in so many ways!! The man has spoken... But perhaps instead....?" This was then followed by artist BossLogic tweeting out his realistic art of Keanu Reeves as Kenshi from Mortal Kombat. The blind, telekinetic swordsman is a fan-favourite for many MK fans, and a lot of people have sepcualted over whether Reeves will have any involvement in a live-action project based on the fighting game, similar to the Mortal Kombat movie that came out last year.
Though BossLogic's art was initially posted in 2018, the resurfacing of it on Twitter has seen speculation rise over whether Reeves will be involved in a Mortal Kombat project without the use of his characters. While BossLogic makes Reeves out to be a convincing Kenshi, there is no official confirmation or announcement on Reeves being involved with Mortal Kombat. Even Ed Boon took to Twitter after teasing fans to say "I should make this clear. This tweet was just for fun. NO tease for any kind of announcement." However, this is coming from the same Ed Boon that teased Mileena while denying her existence for a year, only to then announce her inclusion in the "Aftermath" DLC for Mortal Kombat 11. As ever, only time will tell whether John Wick will join Mortal Kombat's long list of guest characters, or whether Keanu Reeves will join on to another live-action Mortal Kombat film, or whether neither of those things will happen.