
Keanu Reeves Is in 'The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run' — and His Character Is a True Delight
By Gina VaynshteynApr. 16 2020, Updated 12:43 p.m. ET
Are ya ready, kids? (Aye, aye, captain!) The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run trailer is here and it is giving us LIFE. The Nickelodeon show we used to watch when we were kids has gotten the glow-up treatment (it's CGI), but all the things we loved about it are still there. SpongeBob is still eager and ready for anything. Patrick is still dopey but now wears a J.Crew sweater.
Even Squidward and Sandy are back! But there's one Bikini Bottom character whose whereabouts everyone is worried about: Gary the Snail. Gary's mysteriously gone missing, but with the help of Keanu Reeves, SpongeBob is determined to find Gary and bring him back.
Yup, Keanu Reeves is in Sponge on the Run.
"Hello," Keanu says to SpongeBob and Patrick in the trailer. "Call me Sage. I'm made out of Sage and I am a sage. So it works out pretty well," Keanu says, with a literal twinkle in his eye. "I'm Patrick. My name means 'toaster' is Celtic," Patrick says. "Pretty sure it doesn't," Keanu/Sage says, making us love him even more even though he's spoken all of maybe 23 words in the trailer.

If the nostalgia isn't the primary driving force behind you going to see Sponge on the Run, then it's Keanu as a Sage made of sage. And a lot of people would agree.
To the executive or animator or writer working on #SpongeBobMovie that came up with the pitch of, "You know what live-action cameo this new Spongebob Movie needs? Keanu Reeves!"
— Rendy Jones (@Rendy_Jones) November 14, 2019
Thank You. pic.twitter.com/fx1b0ciQtr
Holy shit.
— Balvin "PORTER" Bridges (@LordBalvin) November 14, 2019
Keanu Reeves is in the new SpongeBob movie.. as a tumbleweed.
This looks great. wtf pic.twitter.com/pBvuiPnXoJ
the last thing I expected to wake up to today was keanu reeves as a tumbleweed in a spongebob movie
— Rising-Jay 💫 (@RisingJay) November 14, 2019
Ahem, he's a *sage*, not a tumbleweed, but anyway.
Look at how much of a national treasure #KeanuReeves is
— l3reezer (@l3reezer) November 14, 2019
He's just inexplicably in the new #SpongeBobMovie and we're not even going to question why 😂https://t.co/P7tV2tpLnb
Yeah well done spongebob you did it again
— Shortie wolfie (@BenedictIvanS1) November 14, 2019
And Yeah its Keanu Reeves head on a sage grass as character named 'Sage' pic.twitter.com/bOG4AKviA4
Who else is in the cast of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run?
Tom Kenny stars as the voice of SpongeBob (he originally voiced the talking sponge in the Nickelodeon series). Kenny has also been in BoJack Horseman, and American Dad!. Bill Fagerbakke, the original voice of Patrick Star, is back. He's also appeared in an episode of Black-ish, How I Met Your Mother, and more. Lori Alan is back as Pearl, Rodger Bumpass is still our beloved Squidward, Carolyn Lawrence is Sandy, and Clancy Brown is back as the voice of Mr. Krabs.
Awkwafina will also be lending her voice to the Sponge on the Run cast, but it's unclear who she'll be portraying. Along with Awkwafina, expect to hear Snoop Dogg and Reggie Watts. While the movie is definitely an homage to the classic series, it's still featuring some new faces, er, voices.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run will hit theaters May 22, 2020.