The Matrix Almost Starred Will Smith and Val Kilmer — What Happened?

When a generation-defining science fiction flick gets as much right as The Matrix (now streaming on SYFY), it’s hard to imagine that its biggest creative decisions might’ve come down to anything as mundane as big, dumb luck. 

A quarter century on from the movie’s seismic 1999 release, it’s all but impossible to imagine anyone but Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne in their respective starring roles, as Neo and Morpheus, in The Matrix. But as many fans know, we almost got Will Smith and the late, great Val Kilmer following the White Rabbit instead.

“I would’ve ruined it!” Will Smith explains why he turned down The Matrix

Smith is the first to acknowledge that he missed the casting boat big time when the Wachowskis — who both created and directed The Matrix — came calling with a wild-sounding pitch about bullet-time camera work and the chance to team with Kilmer as one of the film’s two biggest stars. 

In one of his “Storytime” videos from 2019, Smith joked that his career was on a can’t-miss trajectory in the mid-1990s, having successfully led blockbusters like Independence Day (1996) and, after some don’t-overthink-it goading from Steven Spielberg, the Barry Levinson-directed Men in Black (1997). But, Smith teased, he was leery of the Wachowskis’ untested track record as a pair of up-and-coming directors. 

The Wachowskis, after all, had only made one film together before The Matrix (the excellent neo-noir thriller Bound starring Gina Gershon, Jennifer Tilly, and future Matrix star Joe Pantoliano). So Smith instead decided to take a competing role in Wild Wild West (1999), a Levinson-helmed project that, after his massive success alongside Smith in Men in Black — sounded like a far more certain box office hit. 

In hindsight, the tale is “one of them stories I’m not proud of — but it’s the truth. I did turn down Neo in The Matrix,” said Smith, while hastening to add that Reeves and Fishburne ended up proving they were “perfect” for the roles that the Wachowskis originally had eyed for himself and Kilmer.

“If I had done it — because I’m Black, Morpheus wouldn’t have been Black,” Smith explained. “‘Cuz they were looking at Val Kilmer. So I was gonna be Neo, and Val Kilmer was gonna be Morpheus. So, I probably would have messed The Matrix up! I would’ve ruined it! So I did y’all a favor!”

Some reports have since clarified that Kilmer might’ve been eyed not only for the role of Morpheus, but even for that of Neo. In any case, Smith and Kilmer aren’t the only casting near-misses from those early production days, when the many now-iconic elements of The Matrix were still mere matters of conjecture. 

Madonna famously turned down (and later regretted) an offer to play Trinity, a role that Carrie-Anne Moss would of course go on to crush throughout the original Matrix trilogy (as well as 2021’s The Matrix Resurrections). She’s not alone, though: Nicolas Cage, Janet Jackson, Sandra Bullock, Michelle Yeoh, and the late Sean Connery all reportedly passed on their chance to plug in with the Wachowskis for a film concept that transcended its sci-fi genre to remain a must-watch movie to this day.

Check out Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie-Anne Moss in The Matrix, now streaming on SYFY.