Summary
Idris Elba’s Solomon Reed is one of the main characters ofCyberpunk 2077’s newPhantom LibertyDLC, but some eagle-eyed players think that he can be spotted in the base game as well. When CD Projekt Red released the second trailer forCyberpunk 2077: Phantom Libertyduring last year’s Game Awards 2022 livestream, fans were surprised to see thedigital likeness of Hollywood megastar Idris Elbajoin Keanu Reeves as the mysterious and grizzled FIA agent Reed, and there has been much speculation about his character ahead ofPhantom Liberty’s launch earlier this week.
V meets Solomon Reed while investigating a shuttle crash in Night City’s infamous Dogtown district, and it isn’t entirely clear if the cynical agent can be trusted. Though Reed may appear to be an entirely new character created for thePhantom LibertyDLC at first glance, diehard players will notice that the FIA organization he works for was actually mentioned in a digital booklet packaged with thehighly successful Steam version ofCyberpunk 2077. There, it was implied that the FIA has agents undercover throughout Night City - and some fans think that Reed was among them before his first encounter with V.
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A Reddit user by the handle of Siddharth_9697 recently noticed an NPC with a strong resemblance to Solomon Reed in the baseCyberpunk 2077, apparently working as a bouncer in one of Night City’s many clubs. In addition to being a dead-ringer for Idris Elba, this seemingly random NPC appears to havethe same cyberware implants as Reed, and some of the commenters in Siddharth_9697’s post on r/cyberpunkgame point out that Reed mentions moonlighting as a bouncer when he isn’t carrying out clandestine missions for the New United States government.
This isn’t Solomon Reed’s only apparent cameo in the baseCyberpunk 2077, as another player claims to have spotted him at a bar named ‘Malted Iguana Liquors’ - though he can only be seen at a certain point in the game. The references toPhantom Libertydon’t stop with Reed either, as yetanother player thinks that they encountered Songbird, the netrunner who leads V to Dogtown, lounging around in Empathy - the bar that Johnny Silverhand and his band Samurai would often play at before his death.
It isn’t clear if these cameos are intentional, but seeing Solomon Reed and Songbird in Night City before their starring roles inPhantom Libertycould help strengthen the connection between the DLC and the baselineCyberpunk 2077. In the case of Reed, perhaps CD Projekt Reed modeled a random NPC after Idris Elba, only to retroactively link said character to Reed when the famous actor was cast inPhantom Liberty. If that is the case, then it’s a clever way of establishing Reed’s role in theCyberpunk 2077universe even before players startPhantom Liberty’s main story campaign.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Libertyis available for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.
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