If the rumours end up being true, and Keanu Reeves does play Doctor Strange on the big screen, someone is going to have to lend the actor a couple of comic books so he can get familiar with the character.

Since Joaquin Phoenix dropped out of negotiations earlier this month, Reeves has joined Oscar-winner Jared Leto, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ethan Hawke as a front-runner to play the sorcerer who protects Earth from dark magic. And while he’s flattered and admits he loves action movies, he doesn’t know a thing about Stephen Strange.

“I read about that,” he said while promoting his latest action flick John Wick in Toronto. “But I don’t know the character Doctor Strange; I need to go brush up. So I don’t know. It hasn’t been brought to me.”

Reeves did say that if Marvel called, and the script was good, he would “absolutely” consider playing the gifted former neurosurgeon. But if it was left to him, Strange wouldn’t be his first superhero choice.

“Back in the day I wanted to play Wolverine,” he laughed. “But that was a long time ago, and they’ve got a really good Wolverine now.”

Doctor Strange, who was hinted at in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, will emerge in his own feature (if not before in a cameo in next year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron or Ant-Man).

The film will be part of Phase Three Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and is being directed by Scott Derrickson with a script from Jon Spaihts (who wrote Reeves' passion project Passengers, so maybe there's some truth to the rumour?).

Doctor Strange isn’t the only film people have been asking him about.

Quizzed about the long-in-development Bill & Ted 3, Reeves smiled saying: “There’s an affection for those characters that I share. We’re still trying to put that together.”

So Doctor Strange and Bill & Ted 3 with Keanu Reeves – they both could happen. But would he step back inside the Matrix?

“Ah... It would depend on the Wachowskis, but I don’t know. It would depend on the script.”

Reeves’ latest shoot ‘em up, John Wick, finds him battling powerful elements of New York’s underworld after his dog is killed.

It opens Friday.