Once upon a time, Keanu Reeves was allegedly set to star in a film by Lana and Lilly Wachowski. No, not one of the Matrix movies; he was already five years past the franchise by the time rumors began spreading that he was going to collaborate again with the filmmaking duo. 

This time it was for a big-screen adaptation featuring the DC comic book superhero Plastic Man, a film that could have given Reeves another crack at the superhero universe after Constantine. In retrospect—and because reflecting on movies that were never made is something we like to do around here—the movie could have altered the course of the modern DC cinematic universe and made Reeves, alongside actors such as Robert Downey Jr., one of the first big stars to kick off the new era of comic book stories dominating the box office. 

First things first: Who is Plastic Man? Created by Jack Cole, the zany, comedic superhero also known as Patrick “Eel” O’Brian is a reformed burglar who, during a heist gone wrong, gets doused with a mysterious chemical liquid. After being nursed back to health by a monk, he discovers the chemical has made him as stretchy as rubber, able to contort his body to unbelievable dimensions (the character predates Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four). He then decides to turn away from his old life, donning a seductive red spandex suit and going off to fight crime with some help from his sidekick, Woozy Winks. 

So where did the rumor about Reeves and the Wachowskis joining forces on an adaptation come from? Well, as far as sources go, this one was remarkably thin. Back in 2008, the website Cinematic Happenings Under Development (a.k.a. CHUD) reported that producer Joel Silver, who had collaborated with the Wachowskis on the Matrix films, had allegedly said in an interview on German radio that the Wachowskis were working on the film. The filmmaking duo had purportedly been busy with the script back in 1996 and wanted to use Plastic Man as their next big thing after Speed Racer, their 2008 adaptation of the comic book of the same name that underwhelmed with critics and at the box office. But…that was about as far as the sourcing went, leading to some dubious write-ups and this truly gorgeous headline from Vulture: “Keanu Reeves to Play Plastic-Man, Says Some Guy.”

However, it is true that the Wachowskis worked on a script for the film. Back in 1996, Lana told MTV reporter Josh Horowitz that she and her sister had been tackling the story, which was in development hell at the time. “It’s probably the closest script to a comedy we’ll write,” she said then. “We thought it could be kind of cool. The basic idea we came up with was that [Plastic Man] would be an environmentalist, almost like an Earth First-er-type guy.”

Reeves, for his part, briefly addressed the rumor in a 2008 interview, denying it in a most Reeves-ian way.  

“[It’s] not true for me. It might be true for other people, but I haven’t heard anything about it,” Reeves said, a quote that is a shade more beguiling and philosophical than the average rumor denial. What is true for others is not true for him: an almost biblical maxim we should all adopt. 

Regardless, that old script is about as close as a Plastic Man film came to the big screen at the time. But three years after that 1996 interview, the first Matrix film was released—quickly capturing the zeitgeist, becoming a box office smash, and spawning two sequels. A fourth installment, The Matrix Resurrections, directed solely by Lana, is currently set to hit theaters this December. 

It’s interesting to think about the butterfly effect a Plastic Man film could have had on the industry. Had the first film been successful, Reeves could have still been making those movies to this very day; comparably, Downey Jr. starred in the first Iron Man in 2008 and only just laid his suit to rest in Avengers: Endgame in 2019. To think that could have been Reeves! He…could have been in Justice League? 

But even more tragically, a successful Plastic Man trajectory could have led to his never making the John Wick series—undoubtedly his best streak of films since the original Matrix movies. The first film in that franchise was released in 2014, starring Reeves as a chicly suited, retired hit man who gets back in the game after a group of Russian gangsters kills his dog. The franchise, increasingly more high-stakes, bullet-ridden, and packed with celebrities, is now headed for its fourth installment, which will include Rina Sawayama, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, and more in the cast.  

Reeves has thus far managed to escape the contemporary Marvel and DC cinematic universes, though it’s not for lack of trying on the studios’ part. Back in 2019, when Reeves was enjoying a renaissance thanks to the back-to-back releases of the third John Wick movie and Toy Story 4, Marvel boss Kevin Feige painted the actor as the one who got away, again and again and again. 

“We talk to him for almost every film we make,” Feige said then in an interview with comicbook.com. “We talk to Keanu Reeves…I don’t know when, if, or ever he’ll join the MCU, but we very much want to figure out the right way to do it.”

Rumors have cropped up here and there over the years about Reeves joining the MCU, spurred by the most innocuous things—such as Marvel’s U.K. & Ireland Twitter account tweeting a celebratory birthday message to the actor. But Reeves, just like Plastic Man, always manages to slip away, as gloriously in demand as ever, but so coolly out of reach. Meanwhile, Variety reported in 2020 that DC is working on a female-led Plastic Man film, offering a fresh take on the classic comic book character. Let the casting rumors commence!

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