Aziz Ansari is making his directorial debut with the new film, Good Fortune, and he assembled a strong cast for this 2025 movie release. Joining Ansari in the movie are Seth Rogen, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh and Keanu Reeves. Before collaborating with his castmates, Ansari admired the work each of them did. However, previous comments made by the comedian suggest he was particularly starstruck by Reeves. It seems their collaboration was actually foreshadowed as well, as Ansari explained to CinemaBlend.
There have certainly been instances in which TV shows have unintentionally predicted real-life events. (The Simpsons, anyone?) When it comes to Ansari and Reeves working together, it seems that was accidentally predicted in some way by the former’s show, Master of None. Ansari caught up with CinemaBlend’s Jeff McCobb to discuss Good Fortune, and MoN came up as well. After discussing a specific Season 2 episode from the show, Ansari shared the story behind a very interesting detail:
Obviously, Keanu Reeves was never in Master of None, but you want to know a fun factoid that I just realized? In that episode, where I was talking about, there’s the cab drivers and the cab drivers are talking about whether they ever picked up any famous passengers. And one guy says, ‘I picked up Keanu Reeves,’ and the other guys are like, ‘No way, you didn’t. He probably takes Uber’ And then this movie has Keanu Reeves! Who would have known?!
The episode in question is “New York, I Love You,” which mostly shifts the focus away from the series’ protagonist, Dev, and his friends and moves it to other New Yorkers. Among them is Samuel, a Burundian who works as a cab driver and has several roommates. It’s actually Samuel who refutes his buddy’s claim that he once drove the Bill & Ted icon to a club. Considering the existence of Good Fortune, this is now an interesting piece of Master of None lore, and Ansari even admitted it took him a while to make the connection:
I didn’t think about that until way later. I remembered that and [went] like, ‘That’s so weird.’ That’s like, you know, foreshadowing.
This is a sweet coincidence if there ever was one, and I find it funny that everything worked out in the way that it did. Honestly, there couldn’t be a quirkier project for Aziz Ansari and Keanu Reeves to collaborate on than Good Fortune. Both directed and written by Ansari, this supernatural comedy sees Reeves play a “budget guardian angel” who ultimately loses his wings after attempting to help a down-on-his-luck guy (Ansari) via a body swap. The angel is then forced to live as a human and ultimately begins to see the work caused by his prior divine acts of intervention become undone.
Ansari seemed to relish the opportunity to work with Reeves, who he believes is someone with “real movie star aura.” Through his involvement, Reeves apparently “turned the movie into something else,” which “excited” Ansari. It’s long been said that “the Lord moves in mysterious ways” and, whether you’re religious or simply believe in the power of fate, it’s downright delightful that Reeves and Ansari ended up starring alongside each other in this film years after that MoN reference.
Check out Good Fortune when it hits theaters on October 17. In the meantime, grab a Netflix subscription and stream Master of None.