18 years after hitting theaters,The Matrixis still an indelible part of pop culture. The franchise made headlines yet again last month with news that Warner Bros. has hired writerZak Pennto write a newMatrix movie. Rumors then surfaced thatMichael B. Jordanis wanted as a young Morpheus in a prequel. What some fans may not realize is thatWill Smithhad originally been offered the role of Neo, but turned it down, opting instead to star inThe Wild Wild West. This paved the way forKeanu Reevesto land the iconic role, which he reprised in the sequelsThe Matrix ReloadedandThe Matrix Revolutions. Now, an inventive fan took it upon himself to cut together a trailer that shows what it may have looked like ifWill Smithhad played Neo.
AYouTubeand Reddit user dubbed The Unusual Suspect debuted this fan trailer on social media, which has gained a lot of traction, with the video amassing over 490,000 views since it launched. Using footage fromWill Smithmovies likeI, Robot,Enemy Of the State,Men in BlackandFocus, among others, The Unusual Suspect cut together a convincing teaser that includes shots from the originalMatrixtrailer withWill Smithfootage spliced in. Here’s what The Unusual Suspect had to say about how he put the video together, when responding to a Reddit commenter.
“This took about 3 days. Sorry, don’t know the exact amount of time this took (should start logging this in the future). I started by taking the official trailer forThe Matrixand removing all ofKeanu Reevesdialogue and footage. Then I had to replace the rest of the footage with more high quality footage (I used an old 1999 trailer). Then I skimmed throughWill Smith’s movies (I chose films likeI Robot,Enemy of the State,Men in BlackandFocusamongst some others). Once I came across a clip that fit into a scene from the traile}r, I simply popped it in the timeline. There’s about 10 instances here though where I putWill SmithINTO the shot. So there I looked for clips ofWill Smithmaking a similar pose toReeves. Then I rotobrushed in After Effects and color corrected. Then I removedReevesin Photoshop, motion tracked accordingly, and voila. As forWill Smith’s dialogue, sometimes I just got lucky whilst skimming and found something that fit. Other times, I found the needed dialogue by taking the scripts to Will Smith’s films and using CTRL+F to find what Keanu Reeves said. So for example,Reevessays ‘What is happening to me?’. And I foundWill Smithsaying ‘What’s happening to me?’ inEnemy of the State. There’s one instance in this mash where I sentence mixed it though. WhenWill Smithsays “What truth?”, he actually says “THE truth” in the original clip fromFocus. I just found a clip of him saying “What” inI Robotand put it in replace of ‘the.'”
This isn’t the first timeWill Smithhas turned down a role in what would become a huge movie. The actor famously turned down the title character inQuentin Tarantino’sDjango Unchained, since he wouldn’t be the “real star” of the film, which he believed to beChristoph Waltz’s bounty hunter character Dr. King Schultz. The Django role ultimately went toJamie Foxx, withWill Smithalso turning downMr. and Mrs. Smith,Phone Booth,K-PaxandSuperman Returns. After turning downThe Matrix,Will Smithwent on to star inThe Wild Wild West, which opened in June 1999, a few months afterThe Matrixdebuted in March of that year.The Wild Wild Westearned $113.8 million domestically and $221.1 million worldwide, from a massive $170 million budget. The firstMatrix movieearned $171.4 million domestically and $463.5 million worldwide, from a $63 million budget.
As forMatrix 4, writerZak Penntook to social media shortly after the news was announced, making it clear that he is not rebootingThe Matrix, although he wouldn’t offer any specific details on whether this new movie was a prequel or sequel. There has also been talk that Warner Bros. is putting together a writer’s room to develop more ideas for futureMatrixprojects, but that news, along with the potential casting ofMichael B. Jordanas a young Morpheus, has not been confirmed. While we wait for more on this new project, take a look at this inventive fan trailer which shows whatThe Matrixmay have looked like ifWill Smithwould have played Neo.
