‘House of the Dragon’ Star Matt Smith Reacts After Keanu Reeves Is Spotted Watching Morbius on a Flight

Matt Smith had a funny and very honest reaction after learning that Keanu Reeves was once spotted watching Morbius during a flight.

The story came up during Smith’s appearance on Brittany Broski’s Royal Court podcast, which aired on Wednesday. Broski mentioned the viral photo of Reeves watching the 2022 superhero movie on a plane, and Smith immediately turned into a huge Keanu fan.

“I love Keanu Reeves,” Smith said. “He’s like, you know, like you get like a man, mate. Keanu Reeves, what a movie star. And [he] just looks like an angel, you know what I mean? Like if you were to get a guardian angel in life, please God, let it be Keanu Reeves.” Broski agreed and called the John Wick actor “the movie star.”

Smith then talked about how much he enjoys Reeves’ work from the 1990s. “I genuinely think that that period of movies, that sort of ’90s period of films I just love, from Point Break onwards. I just think he’s the best.” While Smith clearly admires Reeves, he could not resist joking about the choice of movie. “Jesus Christ. My god. He must have really gone through the BA library to get to that,” Smith said, referring to the airline’s movie selection.

When Broski joked that Reeves might have been drunk, Smith laughed and replied, “Having a moment. He’s on the Valium or something.” He quickly added, “No, but what a legend. I love Keanu Reeves, I just want to make that really clear.” And when Broski asked what he watches on flights, Smith delivered the punchline: “Not f—ing Morbius.”

Morbius has become one of the internet’s biggest movie memes. The film starred Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, a scientist who turns into a vampire-like antihero. Smith played Milo, his childhood friend. Released in 2022, the movie received poor reviews from critics and a weak audience score. It earned about $167 million worldwide against a reported $75 million budget.

What made the movie famous was not its success, but the strange online reaction to it. After the film was released, social media users began making jokes that treated Morbius as if it were a huge cultural phenomenon. People posted fake quotes, invented scenes, and shared the made-up catchphrase “It’s Morbin’ Time,” even though that line never appears in the movie.

The joke became so popular that Sony re-released Morbius in theaters, apparently hoping the online attention would lead to ticket sales. Instead, the movie earned very little during its second run, which only made the meme even bigger.

For many people, Morbius became a symbol of how internet jokes can take on a life of their own. The movie itself was not widely loved, but the memes surrounding it became more famous than the film.

Smith has previously spoken about the movie’s poor reception. In an interview with Rolling Stone U.K., he said, “Yeah, it was thrown under the bus. But you just have to roll with it. What else are you gonna do? It’s a film, at the end of the day, we’re not saving lives. For whatever reason, it didn’t quite work out and… It is what it is.”

Now, thanks to Keanu Reeves and a podcast conversation, Morbius has once again found itself back in the spotlight.

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