Comedy duo Key and Peele are hitting the big screen with their new movie Keanu, in which they play two unassuming guys who embark on a dangerous mission to save their kitten, which has been kidnapped. The kitten's name is Keanu, an obvious reference to actor Keanu Reeves. Naturally, then, people have been curious about what Keanu Reeves thinks of the movie Keanu , both because of his name being attached to a kitten and because the film seems to parody some aspects of Reeves' own movie John Wick.
Thankfully, it doesn't appear that Reeves is particularly upset about the new movie. In fact, he told Entertainment Tonight in April that, although he hasn't yet watched the film, he looks forward to seeing it when it's released. But he does think that the kitten having his name is "pretty wacky." Said Reeves, "I was like, 'Fellas, don't you want to change the name?' I have friends showing me pictures like, 'Look at the cat! And there's you!' I keep writing back, 'Wacky.'" It’s understandable that being the namesake for a gangster kitten would be a perplexing experience, so taking that into consideration, it seems like Reeves is being a pretty good sport about the whole situation.
However, Key and Peele revealed that the kitten being named Keanu is not poke at the actor. In a Reddit AMA for the movie, Key explained, "You know, it wasn't as calculated as a lot of people think. There's definitely the fact that the movie is a love letter to movies. We do love Keanu, we love movies like Point Break and Speed, and we wanted to put these characters in an action world. Really, it all came a moment where when we came up with the idea of the kitten it was the first name that came to my head, because I love names that only have one connotation."
The comedians have also stated that the kitten's name is not, as many people thought, an indication that the movie is a parody of John Wick. In fact, Key and Peele were already in production on Keanu when they learned of the existence of John Wick, and they were very surprised to learn that the new movie both starred Keanu Reeves and had a similar plot to Keanu. Jordan Peele told Bustle's Tanya Ghahremani, "I thought we had been poached somehow, like our idea, we were being subverted." However, given that Keanu is a comedy and John Wick is a dark thriller, it's reasonable to assume that the movies will be plenty different.
And at the end of the day, there are no hard feelings. In fact, Reeves praised Key and Peele to Entertainment Tonight, saying, "I love those guys, I love their humor. They got a great heart and spirit... so hopefully [the movie] is good." With an adorable kitten as one of the stars, how bad could it be?
Images: Warner Bros
