Attendees at CinemaCon were in for a treat when Warner Bros. broke out what seems to be the first footage that any fans have seen of the upcoming fourth Matrix film, which we now know will officially be titled The Matrix: Resurrections. Revealed in the footage were the new looks for Keanu Reeves’ Neo and Carrie Anne Moss’ Trinity, as well as the fact that the film presumably begins in a world where Neo and Trinity have no memory of their former selves.
According to Deadline, the trailer—which is not available online at the moment—begins with Neil Patrick Harris as a therapist, speaking with Reeves as Neo. Taking place in a futuristic version of San Francisco—which would presumably have to be in The Matrix itself, given that the real world has been destroyed—it would appear that Neo is again living among the other “plugged in” humans, although perhaps not as a slave this time around, given the agreement with the machines reached at the end of The Matrix Revolutions. The trailer also shows Neo coming into contact with Trinity in this world, and the two don’t appear to recognize one another.
Things can’t stay this way forever, of course. In a mode that feels much like the 1999 original, Deadline claims that a “younger Morpheus” contacts Neo and tells him it’s “time to fly,” implying another exodus from The Matrix or whatever world it is that Neo’s mind is currently inhabiting. Which is to say, it sounds like a Matrix movie. We’ll just have to see how the various ages of the actors involved are rectified, as Laurence Fishburne won’t be back this time around to play Morpheus.
The Matrix: Resurrections is directed by Lana Wachowski, as was the original trilogy, and is still scheduled to hit theaters on Dec. 22, 2021. That likely means the trailer seen at CinemaCon, or one like it, will probably make its way online in the not-too-distant future. We’ll be keeping an eye out for it when it does.