The turn of the century was gripped by “Matrixmania.” The Matrix franchise was a massive phenomenon, spawning animations, MMO’s, and comic books. Bullet time took over pop culture, influencing everything from the parody horror-comedy Scary Movie, to video games like Max Payne. The fashion of The Matrix dominated Halloween costumes for years, and some real streetwear. Morpheus’ pince-nez sunglasses have become an iconic item. They are now exclusively known, and sold, as the “Morpheus Sunglasses.” Several philosophy books were written discussing the themes and world of the movie, and film schools blew up with intense scrutinization of the trilogy. Like all things, the hubbub eventually quieted down, and the world moved on. Now, almost twenty years later, The Matrix 4 postures to do it all again. Could it be possible that a new trilogy will launch from this?
The Matrix hit movie theatres in 1999 with spectacular style. It was written and directed by the Wachowskis. The movie starred Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hugo Weaving. It became the fourth highest-grossing film of that year worldwide. It was a defining movie that developed innovative action and technology. The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions were released six months apart in 2003 to conclude the trilogy. Reloaded was a smash financial success, but enthusiasm fell hard for Revolutions, which earned even less than the first film. Revolutions was given a 35% critic rating from Rotten Tomatoes. It appeared this movie was a firm end, both for the cyberpunk messiah revolution of the virtual world and for the lucrative gains of the real-world franchise. For the Wachowskis, at the time, it certainly was. For fifteen years, they repelled and denied rumors of any new Matrix.
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That is, until Lana Wachowski publicly confirmed the new project in August 2019. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss will reprise their roles as Neo and Trinity, and they will share the screen with newcomers and familiars alike. Due to a scheduling conflict, Hugo Weaving was unable to reprise his role as Agent Smith. Intriguingly, Laurence Fishburne is not a part of the production at all, which means no Morpheus. At least, no Morpheus in a form the audience would recognize. Additional rumors hint at another Matrix project about a young Morpheus. It would be a prequel to the original trilogy and talk about the early formation of the human resistance against the machines.
Rumors circulated recently that the title of Matrix 4 will be Resurrections. Whether this is true or not, it will be quite the contrivance to explain how and why Neo returns from the dead, how all those freed humans somehow get rewrapped back into their battery farms and back into their virtual-mind prison. There are several theories as to what could happen. Versions include: Trinity being the new One and resurrecting Neo out of love, Neo becoming a villain and trying to take power in the Matrix, or as hinted at throughout the trilogy, the machines reset events and start over.
If this last theory is correct, it would mean the “real world” and the Matrix from the trilogy were both simulated realities. Morpheus and Neo and their rebel gang were double bluffed by the machines. Zion was a computer program as much as Neo’s computer programming job was. Everything Neo did was exactly as expected by the artificially intelligent machines, who fed them a messiah script with victory and salvation and all. Then, once Neo fulfilled the victory conditions and all the human participants feel like they won, the machines erase the moment of triumph and reboot the computer.
It might be possible that Keanu Reeves was only the One for that cycle of revolution, and now, in the fourth Matrix, he will act as Morpheus for the next cycle. Perhaps Neo is the One because he realized his efforts were ultimately false, and that the real battle for freedom has yet to happen? With Neo as Morpheus a new One will be at the center of the rebellion. The war for true liberation starts anew. If this is the case, the Matrix 4 will be a soft reboot of The Matrix. Everything that came before it will still count as canon, though sort of invalidated because it was ineffective. The original Matrix Trilogy would be a prologue for a new series of films.
There is the possibility that The Matrix 4 will be a one and done film, potentially a second conclusion to the original trilogy. After concluding the trilogy in the way that the series did, this is likely a long shot. To the compliment of the filmmakers, little is known about The Matrix 4. Other than the possible title leak, there have been no other major spoilers revealed. Anticipation from fans is certainly growing.
The Matrix 4 was originally scheduled to be released on the May 24 weekend of this year, but due to COVID delays it had to be pushed back to a Christmas release. In addition to a theatrical release, for those who live in the United States, The Matrix 4 will simultaneously stream on HBO Max for one month.
The Matrix 4 is scheduled to be released on December 23, 2021.