In Netflix's latest hit rom-com Always Be My Maybe, Keanu Reeves appears like an icon, a slow-mo walk-in in a black suit, middle-part flapping. Playing himself, he greets his on-screen girlfriend, played by comedian Ali Wong, with a hilarious spoof of his aloof, esoteric persona.

"I've missed your heart. I've missed your light. I've missed your soul. I've missed your spirit," he tells her with a passionate embrace. Minutes later he's choke-holding her ex-boyfriend, who dared question his knowledge of "Chinese dignitaries".

Keanu Reeves is having a moment. Credit:Invision

The magnificent cameo, along with a string of recent viral stories indulging the Keanu mystique, have seen the star suddenly locked in the public consciousness, a McConaissance of sorts despite the fact he never really went away. Not so much a rediscovery – he has made three John Wick films in the past five years, after all – but a real-time collective embrace, lest such a cinematic treasure be taken for granted.

A New Yorker profile, titled "Keanu Reeves is too good for this world", got the feelings rolling, describing the actor as "an unlikely antidote to everything wrong with the news cycle". It used as its starting point a recent viral moment on Stephen Colbert's late show where the host, jokingly, asked Keanu what happens when we die. Instead of an off-hand quip, the actor rattled viewers with some unexpected earnestness. "I know that the ones who love us will miss us," he said.