There was also another potential gender reversal on the cards when Michelle Yeoh was asked to play Seraph, but she too said no – as did Jet Li. Then there's Sean Connery, who was said to have turned down the role of the Architect who appears in the film sequels (apparently because he found it all too confusing), while Janet Jackson was approached to play Trinity, which of course went to Carrie-Anne Moss.

In this same interview, di Bonaventura admitted that there were other high-profile names he wanted to take on this seemingly unpopular role, but once again, they turned their nose up at the production.Īnother role that could've gone elsewhere - but Morpheus is Laurence Fishburne It just wasn't something for her at the time, so it didn't go anywhere.” We sent her the script to see if she was interested in it and if she was we would try to make the change. Joel Silver and I worked with her on Demolition Man and she continues to be a very good friend of mine. “We went to Sandy Bullock and said we'll change Neo to a girl. “We went to so many people I don't remember, we were getting desperate,” di Bonaventura told The Wrap. Which led them to consider changing the gender of Neo, as they offered the role to Sandra Bullock, the co-lead in the Reeves starring thriller Speed. at the time, admitted things were getting desperate. It was at this point esteemed producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who was an exec at Warner Bros. (Photo by IAKOVOS HATZISTAVROU/AFP/Getty Images) The actor, who also rejected the chance to work with Quentin Tarantino and take on the eponymous lead role in Django Unchained, has admitted this decision may have been ill-judged, particularly as he instead went on to star in Wild Wild West, one of the biggest flops of his career. Though we weren't far away from having to imagine a different Neo, as the list of actors – and actresses - who almost signed up to this project is quite remarkable.įirstly, and most famously, Neo was turned down by Will Smith. Naturally, when dealing with a film of this nature it's impossible to imagine anybody else playing the leading role, which of course eventually fell into the lap of everybody's current favourite actor Keanu Reeves. Keanu Reeves plays Neo in The Matrix - but it's a role that could've gone elsewhere ((WarnerBros)Ģ0 years on from the release of The Matrix, and this iconic, seminal classic from the Wachowski siblings has left a cinematic imprint that has transcended generations – a luminary cinematic event that has left its mark on pop culture, and on the genre it sits within.

Neo the matrix