Will Smith teases potential Matrix role in cryptic post: ‘Wake up, Will...’
The ‘Bad Boys’ star famously turned down the role of Neo in 1999’s ‘The Matrix’
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Your support makes all the difference.Will Smith has teased a potential role in an upcoming The Matrix project with a cryptic social media post.
The Bad Boys star, 56, has previously spoken about the fact that he turned down the role of Neo in the original groundbreaking 1999 film. The part was eventually played by Keanu Reeves.
In a new video post on Smith’s Instagram account, red computer text appears in the style of The Matrix credits.
The message reads: “In 1997, the Wachowskis offered Will Smith the role of Neo in The Matrix. Smith turned it down. He chose Wild Wild West, believing it was a better fit for him at the time. But the question remains: What would The Matrix have been like with Will Smith as Neo?”
The screen then goes blank before revealing two follow-up messages: “Wake up, Will...” and “The Matrix has you...”
The Independent has reached out to Smith’s representatives for comment.
In 2019, Smith posted a YouTube video explaining his decision to turn down the role of Neo. “So after we made Men in Black, the Wachowskis came in and they had only done one movie,” said Smith. ”I think that movie was called Bound. And they came in and made a pitch for The Matrix. And as it turns out, they’re geniuses! But there’s a fine line in a pitch meeting between genius and what I experienced in the meeting.”
He jokily recalled their description of the now-iconic freeze frame jump: “We’re thinking like… imagine you’re in a fight. You, like, jump. Imagine if you could stop jumping in the middle of the jump. But then, people could see around you 360 degrees while you stop jumping. We’re going to invent these cameras and then people can see the whole jump when you stop in the middle of the jump.”
Smith went on to star in Wild Wild West, which became one of the biggest flops of his career. However, the actor at the time had the humility to admit that The Matrix was probably better off without him.
The original 1999 The Matrix spawned several sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions which were both released in 2003, and the more recent reboot The Matrix Resurrections (2021). In a four-star review of the latter, The Independent critic Clarisse Loughrey called the franchise “the foremost reality-rupturing cultural phenomenon of the 20th century.”
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