Keanu Reeves is back.

Just how back is he? Well. He’s in three major films in 2019: “John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum,” “Toy Story 4” and the Ali Wong film “Always Be My Maybe,” in which he has the absolute perfect cameo as a Reeves-esque douchebag. He’s on talk shows, he’s being written up by major media outlets and America’s overall fandom with him seems to have reached a second, post-“Matrix” peak. The Nerds of Color blog has an article titled “The Year of Keanu Reeves.” A Washington Post article talks about the “Keanussance.” Nobody is complaining.

It’s been a while since we’ve felt like we’ve seen him. “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (which sees a sequel next year) came out 30 years ago. “Speed,” 25 years ago. Before 2014’s “John Wick,” I can’t remember any of Reeves’ post-“Matrix: Revolutions” films — although a Google search made me barely, barely recall “Constantine” and that blah “The Day the Earth Stood Still” remake.

And now we’re in 2019, in which Reeves has leap-frogged from the status of Russell Crowe and Jim Carrey — remembered but not often spoken about — to perhaps the most inescapable celebrity at the current moment.

But the reason behind Reeves’ return might not be as traditional as his three major film appearances suggest. Reeves’ second stardom comes at a time in which celebrity culture exists not only in traditional Hollywood film and late-night talk shows, but within a newer, perhaps equally powerful influencer of the American imagination — the Internet.

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Which is to say that the nerds had a lot to do with Reeves’ current status as America’s darling. Movies can’t completely explain his, or any celebrity’s, place in the culture anymore. “John Wick” is a large part of Reeves’ return, but the moment that crystallized his place in the zeitgeist, for me, had nothing to do with Hollywood.

It was, instead, Reeves’ appearance at E3. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, the largest video game industry conference of the year, came away not with headlines about major console releases or scandals regarding microtransactions (chance-based purchasable rewards such as loot boxes are a highly controversial mechanic in modern video games).

No, the most popular piece of retweetable content was a clip of Reeves appearing onstage, telling the audience that the new game “Cyberpunk 2077” will be “breathtaking,” and then someone from the crowd saying, “you’re breathtaking.” “You’re breathtaking,” Reeves responds, a smile growing on his face as the audience cheers. “You’re all breathtaking.”

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That moment might not mean much in any other context. But this was E3. The conference of Redditors, Meme-ers, Console War debators, nerds and geeks. And we were the ones who’ve had a keen eye on Reeves since way before “John Wick.” Sad Keanu was one of the first celebrity-based memes to circulate the Internet. In 2010, a photo of Reeves sitting forlornly at a bench, supposedly pondering the sad existence of humanity, went viral. This came at a time when memes were an emerging form of Internet content, when Buzzfeed quizzes and listicles still dominated social media.

But the image’s context changed over the years. In 2010, Reeves was 7 years into the post-“Matrix” era, long enough for the world to move on, though not enough for the diehards of the Internet to forget him. Reeves, after all, was part of franchise that spawned hundreds of “Matrix” fan blogs, intense debates on “Matrix” online forums, not to mention, later, the Reddit subculture of “The Red Pill” — man-trolls who believed they are part of an enlightened minority (hence the name) who have figured out how to best get laid.

Sad Keanu was, in essence, a representation of a forgotten man, a celebrity who once had it all but now has absolutely nothing to do besides sit alone and ponder. This symbol didn’t last long. Reddit (and other Internet platforms, such as the then-popular Digg) would often be home to videos of Reeves acting politely, modestly or courteously to fans and strangers in public. There was a viral video of Reeves riding a subway, and giving his seat to a woman. There was the well-documented, much-Tweeted incident in which a flight was cancelled and Reeves orchestrated a shuttle for the passengers.

Suddenly, Sad Keanu turned into “The Internet’s Boyfriend,” as a Time Magazine piece called it. Reeves became an emblem of a rare celebrity in his intense likeability, his eschewing of fame and his sense of modesty and kindness. This is why the E3 crowd went wild when he came on stage, when the audience fawned even more when someone said he was “breathtaking.”

Celebrity during the Internet age transcends the marketing and planning of Hollywood press junkets and movie star mythology. Reeves isn’t simply known as a kung-fu and gun-wielding action star but as a friend of the Internet. The Reddit fandom feels more intimate, so much so that the nerds weren’t surprised when Reeves supposedly came back in 2019. Because for us, he’d always been here.

wchen@chron.com

Twitter.com/weihuanchen