The announcement that Keanu Reeves will be an actor in the next RPG from CD Projekt RED is one of the highlights of E3 2019. But for fans of the Cyberpunk 2020 board game, this news was doubly joyful, because Keanu will play none other than Johnny himself Silverhand is almost the most important character in the lore of the universe. In this post, we will shed some light on who Johnny Silverhand is and what role he will play in Cyberpunk 2077 .
The most famous rockboy
In the Cyberpunk world, rockerboys are the bards of the distant future: popular singers and poets who often use their creativity and authority in Night City to oppose the evil mega-corporations. Nicknamed for his chrome prosthesis, guitarist and vocalist Johnny Silverhand is considered the most famous rockerboy, and his tracks have continued to play regularly on the radio for nearly a century.
The events of the desktop Cyberpunk, as you know, take place in an alternative universe, where already in the 1990s local technologies greatly outstripped ours in terms of the level of development, and the political map of the world was formed in a different way (the USSR, for example, did not disintegrate). During this period of time, Johnny Silverhand served in the US Army, but at some point he had an ideological conflict with his superiors, as a result of which Johnny deserted.
Silverhand has always adhered to anarchist views, he hated the powerful and dreamed of achieving change in the city of Night City, which turned into a real dystopia due to endless confrontations between corporations and criminal gangs. Johnny decided to fight against tyranny with music charged with political themes and ideas. In the early 2000s, he became the frontman of the Samurai group, and in 2003 the group signed a contract with an influential music producer and became famous all over the world with such hit songs as “Chippin ‘In” and “Never Fade Away”. Successful tours, leading positions in the music charts – Silverhand and other members of the group were at the top of the world. However, in 2008, Samurai broke up, and the main reason for the incident was the record company, which Johnny and his friends have worked with all these years. The producers tried to blackmail the frontman in order to conclude a more lucrative contract for further cooperation: they threatened to make public the fact that Silverhand had deserted from the army. However, Johnny was not in the least afraid: he sent the greedy studio away, signed a contract with their main competitor and began a successful solo career.
Fourth corporate war
In 2021, a violent conflict broke out between the influential companies OTEC (Ocean Technology and Energy Corp) and CINO (Corporation Internationale Natuicale Et Oceanique) over the right to own shares in a third corporation called IHAG (Internationale Handelsmarine Aktiengesellschaft). At first, the conflict was purely legal, but at some point competitors turned to private security firms for help, and real fighting broke out on the streets of Night City between Militech mercenaries who sided with CINO and Arasaka employees who supported OTEC. In 2022, OTEC and CINO finally resolved their differences, but despite this, Militech and Arasaka continued to fight each other. California was drowning in blood, everything was so serious that the US authorities personally intervened in the confrontation and openly supported Militech.
Johnny Silverhand and many other famous figures of Knight City decided to personally stop the Arasaka company in order to avoid the complete destruction of the metropolis. To this end, they staged a raid on the corporate headquarters. Unfortunately, during the raid, cyborg assassin Adam Smasher shot Johnny Silverhand with a shotgun. The teammates had to leave his body during the retreat. As a result, the Arasaka headquarters was completely destroyed by a nuclear explosion, and the remains of Silverhand were never found.
Dead or alive?
In Cyberpunk 2077, you can find graffiti on the walls “Where is Johnny?” On the streets, which suggests that people still believe that their idol has not died. If so, then he must be almost a hundred years old. Whether we meet the living Silverhand or not is a question that has not yet been answered. But during the E3 exhibition, it became known for sure that the main character would be assisted by the AI hologram of Silverhand, which will be played by Keanu Reeves. He will help the player with advice, which certainly will not interfere, given that the hero will be hunted by the entire Night City for his mysterious chip containing the secret to immortality.
