Keanu Reeves has a considerable number of iconic movie parts under his belt, ranging from his early performance as Ted "Theodore" Logan in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, to the career-defining character of Neo in the Matrix franchise, to his latter-day action anti-hero John Wick. But he has yet to go the way of so many leading men and play a superhero in a tentpole blockbuster—although it's not for lack of Marvel trying.
Back in 2019, Marvel president Kevin Feige joked that they have a conversation with Reeves every time they make a new movie to ask if he's interested, while Reeves himself has more recently said "it would be an honour" and "really cool to be part of that."
The subject of him joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe just arose again during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live this week.
"It's really cool, I think the way the Marvel films have developed into what they are is really spectacular, and it would be great to be a part of that," he said, although he remained tight-lipped as to whether Marvel Studios have offered him any specific superhero roles. Instead, he responded to Kimmel's next question, namely which character his 10-year-old comic book-loving self would have loved to play.
"I think he'd probably want to be Ghost Rider," he said.
Comics have long been one of Reeves' passions, starting as a young child when he used to read Archie Comics, through to Iron Man, Superman and Batman as an adolescent, before getting really into Frank Miller's Wolverine run and the Akira manga when he was a little older. In fact, one of the reasons he was appearing on Kimmel was to promote his new comic book series BRZKRKR, which he co-created with Matt Kindt. The central character, modelled on Reeves' own appearance, is an immortal warrior who is depicted fighting his way through different periods of history.
