None of us saw it coming—Keanu Reeves in an animated short for Armored Core? That was pretty unexpected, even for the executive producer at Secret Level, Dave Wilson. When Keanu showed up in that initial Secret Level teaser, jaws dropped. I mean, he’s a Hollywood heavyweight, and while we’ve seen him in Cyberpunk 2077, catching him in an Armored Core project was a curveball for sure.
So, it turns out that even Wilson was caught off guard when someone suggested getting Reeves involved. During a chat with GamesRadar, Wilson and Tim Miller, the brain behind Deadpool, shared their experiences of reeling in Reeves for the project. Initially, when Miller brought it up, Wilson thought he was just pulling his leg.
Miller explained, "We hadn’t really worked with Keanu before, though I’d run into him once. Turns out he’s a massive animation enthusiast. He actually came by Blur Studios to discuss a different movie, but suddenly he’s raving about Love, Death and Robots, asking to know all about it."
Miller jokingly offered, "We’re working on this other thing. Interested in joining?" According to him, Reeves lit up, responding, "F**k yeah." Miller continued, "I asked if he had any particular role in mind, and he was just raring to jump in like, ‘Put me in, coach.’ So I nudged Dave and asked, ‘If you were to put Keanu in the series, who would he play?’ And Dave initially thought the idea was a prank."
Wilson reminisced about how it all went down, saying he was a bit baffled at first as Miller would send voice messages that transcribed hilariously wrong. "I received this message that read, ‘Hey, do we have anything for piano?’ And I was just puzzled, like, ‘What?’ Then it hit me, and I didn’t believe it at first." He added that Reeves came on board when they were already deep into the series production, with most of the episodes cast. "I started getting videos from other actors, thinking, ‘Tim, there are no roles left.’"
Yet somehow, they saved a major part for Reeves, which he took on. And fans don’t have to wait much longer to see how he pulls it off; the series kicks off its first episodes next week on December 10, streaming on Prime Video.
