No, Will Smith’s Not Starring in The Matrix 5 (but the Movie Could Still Happen)

Will Smith made a cryptic post about The Matrix on Monday, leading many fans to speculate that he might appear in the franchise. Just a couple of hours later, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety both heard from reliable sources that Smith is not involved in the film series at all. Still, the story got fans thinking about the new Matrix movie first announced back in April, and perhaps that was the point.

Smith posted a video on Monday with animated text that mimicked the style of the 1999 hit The Matrix. It read: “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? Wake up, Will… The Matrix has you.” Smith has talked about his near-miss with the Matrix franchise before, and there didn’t seem to be a reason for bringing it up on Monday except perhaps to have some fun.

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If the post was connected to anything, fans speculated it might be the new Matrix movie announced back in April, written and directed by Drew Goddard. The filmmaker behind The Martian, The Cabin in the Woods and World War Z reportedly pitched a sequel idea himself, and Warner Bros. Discovery loved it. Original series creators Lana and Lilly Wachowski will not be directly involved, though Lana will reportedly take on some duties as an executive producer.

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Plot details on this sequel are very scarce, and there have been no real updates since April. With that in mind, some fans speculated that the studio might be looking for a unique way to drum up interest before a big announcement — perhaps with Smith’s help. However, that remains speculation at this point, and even if it’s true it doesn’t necessarily mean the actor is involved in the project.

We can be fairly confident that Goddard’s Matrix movie is still coming. Last year’s reports seemed to indicate that it was formally greenlit, and there have been no reports of it faltering so far. However, we don’t know much more about how far along it is, what it might be about or when it might premiere. It’s worth noting that Goddard was also hired to work in the DCU writer’s room, helping to plot out the overarching story of the franchise without writing a particular script himself.

The Matrix has a rocky history with sequels. The first movie is virtually flawless, while the two that followed shortly behind it are unjustly maligned by many fans. The long-awaited fourth installment, 2021’s The Matrix Resurrections, seems to take the most abuse in fandom discussions. On top of that, the movie struggled financially at it was released in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whatever comes next for Smith and The Matrix franchise, they’ll likely be completely separate. At the time of this writing, the original Matrix trilogy is only available to stream on Philo, while Resurrections is streaming on Max.