What to expect from ‘The Matrix Resurrections’

After a long wait, the first trailer for "The Matrix Resurrections", the fourth installment in the beloved Matrix franchise, is finally here – and it suggests that the film will live up to the original trilogy's legacy of challenging and entertaining science fiction. Here is everything we know about the much-anticipated movie so far, including details from the trailer.

The Cast

Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are slated to reprise their roles as Neo and Trinity. However, Laurence Fishburne was not invited to return as Morpheus.

The trailer shows Trinity plugged in to the Matrix.

Along with Reeves and Moss, the main cast includes Neil Patrick Harris, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Priyanka Chopra, and Jada Pinkett Smith, who played Niobe in the two Matrix sequels.

It is rumoured that Abdul-Mateen might play a young Morpheus in the new film.

The Crew

Making another Matrix movie would not be possible without one of the minds who envisioned the original trilogy.

Lana Wachowski, who directed the first three movies with her sibling Lilly, is returning to write and direct "The Matrix Ressurections". Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell wrote the script with Wachowski, who wrote and directed the original trilogy with her sister, Lilly.

The Plot

The original trilogy ended with a peace between the humans and the machines, giving humans the option to leave the Matrix entirely. However, both Neo and Trinity die in the third film—Trinity in a hovercraft crash; and Neo after his fight destroying Agent Smith. However, it is teased in the end that Neo will return.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's character appears to be fulfilling the Morpheus role in this movie.

The trailer, filled with "Alice in Wonderland" nods, tells us little about what to expect from "The Matrix Resurrections". Apparently, Neo is living in a near-future San Francisco, trapped in a boring existence. He runs into Trinity at a cafe, and she asks him, "Have we met?"

It is clear that Neo is brought back into the Matrix somehow, but the trailer does little to explain why, or how he comes to realise that he is the version of himself we saw in the original trilogy.

Only time will tell whether the fourth film lives up to the expectations, especially after so many films, television series, video games, books, and comics have borrowed from the language and artistic elements of "The Matrix".  

"The Matrix Ressurections" is set to release in US theatres and HBO Max on December 22, 2021.