Though The Matrix Resurrections’ plot is still largely unknown, the handful of trailers and images Warner Bros. has released in the buildup to the movie’s release have all provided fascinating hints about what pulls Neo back into the Matrix, and why the fabricated reality looks so different this time around. These early glimpses of Resurrections have felt familiar, though certain details like the specific people involved have been quite different. Case in point: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s new Morpheus.
Many fans were disappointed to learn that Laurence Fishburne would not be reprising his role in Resurrections, but because The Matrix franchise has always had a certain element of digital rebirth built into it, it stood to reason that Abdul-Mateen’s character might be Morpheus reborn in a new guise. While Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss didn’t take it upon themselves to break all of this down during their recorded appearance at the 2021 Video Game Awards, the new clip from The Matrix Resurrections they introduced seems to explain some of it.
The short clip follows Neo (Reeves) and Bugs (Jessica Henwick) as they discuss how movement through the Matrix has changed considerably since the last time the One found himself online. Freed from the need to use telephone booths to jump between the Matrix and the real world, Bugs and her new team of freedom fighters are able to pull of things that Neo and his team likely never could like turning moving doorways into portals, and it’s all very impressive. Even more impressive, though slightly concerning, is how Bugs (a woman with a white rabbit tattoo) brings Neo face-to-face with Morpheus on a ramshackle stage meant to be a recreation of their meeting in the original Matrix.
Neo and Morpheus’ conversation in the clip implies that when the two initially meet in Resurrections, either the newness of Morpheus’ appearance, or the strangeness of being back in the Matrix — which was presumably spun down following The Matrix Revolutions — puts Neo on edge in a way that’s going to be important here. It’s not clear whether this new Morpheus is entirely on the level, but appearing to know everything about his own past as he plays a hand in shaping Neo’s future may be a sign of him being one of the more interesting characters to watch when The Matrix Resurrections hits theatres on December 26.