Is this a glitch in the Matrix — or is Will Smith The One? On Monday, the Bad Boys star shared a cryptic message to his nearly 70 million Instagram followers, posting a clip that evokes a scene from 1999’s The Matrix. In the scene, computer programmer Neo (Keanu Reeves) wakes up to a prompt on his computer screen — “Wake up, Neo…” — followed by a typed-out message: “The Matrix has you. Follow the white rabbit.”
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The 30-second clip, which you can watch below, 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? Wake up, Will… The Matrix has you.”
Smith famously turned down The Matrix role to star in 1999’s Western comedy Wild Wild West, which reunited the actor with his Men In Black director Barry Sonnenfeld.
“I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth: I did turn down Neo in The Matrix,” Smith said in a 2019 video posted to his YouTube channel titled “Why I Turned Down The Matrix.”
“I had done Independence Day the year before, so I was like, ‘I’m not doing another alien movie. I don’t want to be the alien movie guy,’” Smith said in the video. “So I turned down Men In Black.” Producer Steven Spielberg ultimately convinced the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star to join Tommy Lee Jones in the franchise-spawning sci-fi comedy, but Smith couldn’t be swayed to headline the second movie from a then-unknown directing duo: the Wachowskis.
“They had only done one movie, they did a movie called Bound. And they came in and they made a pitch for The Matrix,” Smith explained. “As it turns out, they’re geniuses.”
“So I made Wild Wild West,” Smith said, adding Reeves was “perfect” opposite Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus (who would have been played by Top Gun and Batman Forever star Val Kilmer).
“I probably would have messed The Matrix up,” Smith said. “I would have ruined it. So I did y’all a favor.”
Is Will Smith in the New Matrix Movie?
Wild Wild West bombed, while the Wachowskis-directed Matrix — also starring Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Hugo Weaving — went on to become the fifth highest-grossing film of the year, spawning a franchise that includes 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
A fourth film, 2021’s The Matrix Resurrections, reunited Reeves and Moss with director Lana Wachowski, who will executive produce the new Matrix movie from The Cabin in the Woods and Bad Times at the El Royale writer-director Drew Goddard. It’s unclear if Smith is involved with the as-yet-untitled Matrix 5, which Warner Bros. confirmed to be in the works last April.
“Drew came to Warner Bros. with a new idea that we all believe would be an incredible way to continue the Matrix world, by both honoring what Lana and Lilly began over 25 years ago and offering a unique perspective based on his own love of the series and characters,” said Warner Bros. Motion Pictures president of production Jesse Ehrman in a statement. “The entire team at Warner Bros. Discovery is thrilled for Drew to be making his new Matrix film, adding his vision to the cinematic canon the Wachowskis spent a quarter of a century building here at the studio.”
“It is not hyperbole to say The Matrix films changed both cinema and my life,” added Goddard, whose credits include 2013’s World War Z, 2015’s The Martian, and the 2015 Marvel-Netflix series Daredevil. “Lana and Lilly’s exquisite artistry inspires me on a daily basis, and I am beyond grateful for the chance to tell stories in their world.”
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