Keanu Reeves almost played Dr. Manhattan in Zack Snyder’s Watchmen

I feel like I woke up one day in the recent past to find that Keanu Reeves was once again one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. I remember his heyday in the early 2000s, when everyone wanted to wear long black trench coats and stop bullets with their minds. His role as Neo in The Matrix is still probably the most iconic of his career, but between his explosive turn in the John Wick movies, playing Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4, and a memorable appearance at the latest E3, the guy is everywhere these days.

Happy to be a part of the Keanu Reevsaissance, Screen Rant put together a video entitled, “25 Breathtaking Facts About Keanu Reeves.” Nothing in there is new, but a lot of it is new to me. For example, did you know that Reeves was offered the part of the emotionless, naked blue superhero Dr. Manhattan in Zack Snyder’s 2009 adaptation of Alan Moore’s Watchmen graphic novel?

Reeves confirmed that he was offered the role to MTV back in 2008, a year before the movie came out. He was interested, but it just “didn’t work out.” He was clearly excited about the project, though. “I went to the set. They were shooting in Vancouver while we were filming so I went over to the set to say, ‘hi.’ They showed me some stuff and it looks amazing! I can’t wait. It’s going to be so killer, man!”

Some of Reeves best onscreen moments involve him underplaying things — see him watching Laurence Fishburne leap between buildings and respond with his iconic “whoa” — so I could definitely have seen him as the cryptically distant Dr. Manhattan. The role ended up going to Billy Crudup, but now I’ll always wonder what might have been.

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As it happens, HBO just wrapped production on its own Watchman show, which is set sometime after the conclusion of Moore’s comic. They’re dropping cryptic hints about the show over on its official Instagram page, including a trio of quick videos showcasing Regina King’s character:

We’ll still not sure who King is playing. Based on these videos…uh, priest-cop?

And we don’t know if Dr. Manhattan will be in the show at all. Maybe there’s still time for Keanu to slather on the translucent blue body paint and take the world by storm?

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