Will Smith Teases a Possible MATRIX Project
Will Smith recently shared a video on his Instagram account teasing a possible Matrix project. When you watch the video, you’ll see why I think that’s the case.
The cryptic message 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 saying “Wake up, Neo…” That is followed by a typed-out message: “The Matrix has you. Follow the white rabbit.”
The video 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.”
As you know, after starring in a string of big blockbuster hits like Bad Boys, Men in Black, and Independence Day, the Wachowskis wanted Smith to star in The Matrix.
Smith previously talked about why he ended up turning down the project believing that he couldn’t really see the vision of the film that they wanted to make.
The actor explained what his pitch meeting with the Wachowskis was like and how it ultimately led to him turning down the project:
"After we made Men in Black, the Wachowskis, they came in, and they had only done one movie, I think it was called 'Bound,' and they made a pitch for The Matrix.
“As it turns out, they're geniuses, but there's a fine line in a pitch meeting between a genius and what I experienced in the meeting."
"This is the actual pitch that they made for The Matrix. 'Dude, we're thinking like, imagine you're in a fight, then you jump, imagine if you could stop jumping in the middle of the jump.'"
“Say that again?" Smith said to them, and the Wachowskis continued, "'But then, people could see around you, 360, while you're jumping, while you stopped jumping, right? And we're gonna invent these cameras and then people can see the whole jump while you're stopped in the middle of the jump.'"
He added: "Keanu was perfect. Laurence Fishburne was perfect. If I had done it, because I'm black, then Morpheus wouldn't have been black. They were looking at Val Kilmer.
“I was gonna be Neo and Val Kilmer was gonna be Morpheus, so I probably would have messed The Matrix up. I would have ruined it. So I did y'all a favor."
Watch the video that Smith shared below and let us know what you think it means.