"In 1997," the post reads, "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?"

The scammer who posed as Brad Pitt to obtain €830,000 (£697,000) from a French woman has reportedly been identified and they may not have acted alone. The victim, named Anne, was fooled into sending money to the individual (s), pretending to be the Fight Club star, 61.

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.

It’s a known fact that before Keanu Reeves immortalised Neo on the big screen with the groundbreaking and genre-defining The Matrix in 1999, it was Will Smith who was first offered the role but he rejected it for Wild Wild West (1999).

Reeves found his bandmates serendipitously, first bonding with eventual drummer Robert Mailhouse about his Detroit Red Wings sweater in a grocery store in 1991. They began to regularly jam together, later onboarding singer/guitarist Gregg Miller in 1992.