Talk about shaking your perception of reality. We all know that he was supposed to be the new Superman, but apparently Nicolas Cage was at one point also offered both the roles of Neo from The Matrix and Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings franchise. Wow.

The following comes from our friends over at MTV:

“Yeah, there was a couple of movies that I was offered, but I had good reasons, so I couldn’t do it. One was ‘The Matrix,’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings,’” he revealed. “Both are great movies. But they both shot in New Zealand for great quantities of time…I mean years. Well, Australia was ‘The Matrix,’ New Zealand was ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ But I had family obligations, so I’m glad I stayed and I had those experiences with my family.”

Now just soak in that thought for a moment. Imagine how different both of those movie would have ended up being had Nicolas Cage played them. And don’t just jump to the conclusion that it would have made them worse either. Cage has made some questionable films… but he’s an Oscar winning actor and a good one at that.

It’s almost just too trippy to even imagine though…. Cage as Aragorn?!?! Cage saying “I know Kung-Fu”?!?! I almost wish they could remake them now just to see how differently they may have turned out