While we’d all love to see our favorite actors in every movie or TV show we watch, it’s not physically possible. Sometimes it’s a difference in genre, and you’re watching something that wouldn’t seem normal for them, or they didn’t get the role for one reason or another. Even Keanu Reeves, a very popular actor, has turned down or not gotten several roles.

While it might seem more common for actors to lose roles when they’re first starting out, audition processes can always mean one famous actor loses a role to another. Sometimes, there are scheduling conflicts as well, and movies that might have had the actor in them had to find someone else when they weren’t available. When it comes to stars of popular franchises such as Reeves, it applies even mores. Between shooting The Matrix and John Wick, Reeves had and continues to have a lot on his plate, meaning he’s missed out on several roles.

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Bowfinger

     Universal Pictures

The comedy Bowfinger is all about aspiring filmmaker Bobby Bowfinger trying to get his big break by making his dream movie on a low budget. He rallies a few people to help him out and plans to shoot his blockbuster with the biggest star in Hollywood, Kit Ramsey. The only problem is, Ramsey has no idea he’s in a movie, much less that he’s being filmed. Kit Ramsey is played by Eddie Murphy, but it wasn’t always that way. When the movie was in development, the role was first written with Reeves in mind. In this case, however, the producer changed his mind after reading the script, and they opted to find someone else to fill the role.

Tropic Thunder

     DreamWorks Pictures

Tropic Thunder is a satirical action comedy that parodies many famous war films. In the middle of shooting a war film, the director grows frustrated with his actors and surprises them by dropping them in the middle of a forest. He hopes this will liven up their performances and intends to capture their performance on hidden cameras.

What he doesn’t expect, however, is that the actors accidentally find themselves in the middle of a real war zone, now needing to figure out how their acting skills can keep them alive. It was thought that the role of Tugg Speedman, one of the leading actors, was going to go to Reeves. The producer, Ben Stiller, had all intentions of trying to fit Reeves into it. However, Stiller found the role appealing and instead decided to take it for himself.

Speed Racer

     Warner Bros. Pictures

Based on a manga and anime series of the same name, Speed Racer revolves around the titular character, an 18-year-old racer who comes from a family business built around race cars. As one of the hottest racing stars at the time, he usually wins every race he’s in. After turning down an offer from Royalton Industries, he discovers that most of the races are rigged to boost profits. He sets out to change this outcome and put an end to their schemes by joining an arduous cross-country race, one that previously killed his brother.

Racer X, a role played by Matthew Fox, is a racer that Speed teams up with. The role was offered to Reeves before Fox, however, but he turned it down. Even so, he wished it would have worked out, as it would have let him work with the directors from The Matrix again.

Platoon

     Orion Pictures

The classic war film Platoon follows Chris Taylor, who leaves college to enlist in combat duty during the middle of the Vietnam War. While originally thinking it was something he wanted to do, idealizing the idea of going to war, that feeling begins to fade once he’s on the ground in the middle of an actual fight. It only gets worse as infighting begins in his unit as they fight over the locals, some believing they’re innocent and others thinking they’re harboring enemy soldiers.

This frame of mind pits the soldiers against each other, not just against the enemy. Chris Taylor is played by Charlie Sheen, but before he landed the role, a few others were considered, including Reeves. Though it may seem as a surprise from an action star, Reeves turned the role down because it was too violent. While he’s okay with fictional and fantasy violence, it seems imitating the real world is not something he’s up for.

Lord of the Rings

     New Line Cinema

The popular fantasy trilogy Lord of the Rings is set in Middle-earth and follows the hobbit Frodo Baggins. He has found himself in possession of the One Ring, and with the rest of the Fellowship, embarks on a journey to destroy it and its maker, the Dark Lord Sauron. They encounter many difficulties along the way, but they don’t let anything deter them from reaching their goal, no matter what they have to do to get through to it. Reeves had hoped to become a part of the Fellowship, trying to get the role of Aragorn. Instead, the role went to Viggo Mortensen, who held the role throughout the trilogy.

X-Men

     20th Century Fox

X-Men is a superhero action series based on the Marvel Comics. These heroes are mutants, humans born with a unique genetic mutation which, when hitting puberty, turn into superpowers. Professor X leads a special school for these children, so they can not only finish school but learn how to control their powers, but he also leads the X-Men, the adult mutants that fight to protect the world despite how they fear them.

Their once ally Magneto believes there is no chance at peace between the mutants and humans, however, and is often battling against the group. One of the most popular X-Men, Wolverine, was a breakout role for Hugh Jackman and one of the defining roles of his career. However, Reeves was also considered for the role, and it was something he wanted to do too before it was given to Jackman.

Captain Marvel

     Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Another superhero movie, Captain Marvel follows the titular character, also known as Carol Danvers. She’s a Kree warrior attempting to bring her strange powers under control while also not remembering anything of her past. While fighting off the Skrulls, an evil shape-shifting alien race, she lands on Earth, attempting to stop the Skrulls that landed with her while also discovering lost memories of a life she once lived there.

Yon-Rogg, the Kree who Danvers looked up to as a mentor, is played by Jude Law. But before he took the role, it was offered to Reeves, who turned it down, most likely due to conflicts with filming John Wick 3. This is just one of many Marvel roles he’s turned down, as Kevin Feige has said they approach Reeves for a role in almost every movie they make. Maybe one day we’ll see him in the MCU.

Speed 2: Cruise Control

Speed 2: Cruise Control is an action thriller film that’s a sequel to the original Speed. Annie and Alex are a couple looking forward to their Caribbean cruise vacation. However, while they’re on board, the ship is hijacked by Geiger, who disables the ship’s communication and control systems as he takes it over.

Now trapped, Annie and Alex try to work with the ship’s crew to take the ship back and stop it before it continues on its current programmed course, where it will crash into an oil tanker. Despite starring in the first Speed and getting the offer to reprise his role, Reeves declined because the thought that it was on a cruise ship didn’t make sense. Instead of recasting, they rewrote the script, writing his character out and replacing him with another.