Over the past month or so — possibly even the last 20 years — Will Smith has been dwelling on “the biggest mistake” of his career: passing on starring in The Matrix, the 1999 sci-fi action movie that launched a billion-dollar franchise and introduced the term “red pill” to the pop culture lexicon. In early January, a social post from the star suggested that he might revisit this decision, while a report from the trades suggested it might actually be rollout for his new album.
In the teaser for his next song “Beautiful Scars,” it turns out the latter is true, as Will and Big Sean recreate the classic scene from the film in which Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus offers Keanu Reeves‘ Neo a choice in the form of a pair of pills. Spoiler alert for a 26-year-old film: Neo accepts the red pill, thus beginning his awakening from the film’s titular Matrix simulation and his journey to becoming “the One” — the only human who can stand up to the tyrannical machines that have dominated their creators for the past 200 years.
In the teaser, Will finally takes on the now-pivotal role he once passed on, while Sean plays Morpheus. Sean tells Will that the blue pill will keep everything the same, while the red pill will give him a chance to relive his life starting from his acceptance of the Neo role. Will waffles a bit, because as he points out, his life still turned out pretty well — all slaps aside — but he really wants to see how things would have been different. And, as the latest Matrix revival revealed, the choice is a bit of a false binary, which Will takes advantage of to get the best of both worlds.
The video for “Beautiful Scars” is out on 1/30.