On Monday (Jan. 6), Will Smith decided to leave the world in suspense with his latest post on social media. Taking to Instagram, the rapper-actor shared a cryptic message regarding 1999’s The Matrix, which he was meant to star in before going in a different direction.

“In 1997, the Wachowskis offered Will Smith the role of Neo... Smith turned it down. He chose Wild Wild West, believing it was a better fit for him at the time,” the caption read, mentioning the directors behind The Matrix and its sequels. “But the question remains: What would [it] have been like with Will Smith as Neo?”

“Wake up, Will,” it closed as ominous music became progressively louder in the background. “The Matrix has you...” Notably, his longtime partner, Jada Pinkett Smith, eventually ended up in the iconic series as freedom fighter Niobe.

Back in 2019, Smith detailed his opportunity to appear in the iconic franchise, which to date produced four blockbusters. “The Wachowskis... came in and had only done like one movie. I think it was called Bound,” he said. “They came in and made a pitch for The Matrix. As it turns out, they’re geniuses. But there is a fine line in a pitch meeting between genius and what I experienced in the meeting.” The pitch in question was centered around the now-famous “bullet time” effect, which saw cameras panning around Neo and other characters in a 360-degree sequence.

Smith regretted his decision to turn down The Matrix for Wild Wild West, which ended up being a critical and commercial failure. “I’m not proud of it,” he admitted. Ultimately, he felt that Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and the rest of the cast were great choices. “If I had done it, ‘cause I’m Black, then Morpheus wouldn’t have been Black ‘cause they were looking at Val Kilmer [for that role],” he explained before humorously stating, “I probably would’ve messed The Matrix up. I would’ve ruined it. So, I did y’all a favor.”