Having recently resumed shooting after a lengthy delay due to the Coronavirus pandemic, which has seen the movie’s release date pushed back by almost an entire year and ruined Keanu Reeves Day in the process, The Matrix 4 is back underway and set photos have already started making their way online.
Despite having been burned by the back-to-back disappointments of Reloaded and Revolutions in 2003, longtime fans are still getting hyped about the latest installment in the franchise, and they’ll be hoping that co-creator Lana Wachowski’s solo directorial debut will atone for the sins that saw the groundbreaking and massively influential original followed up by two sequels that almost collapsed under the weight of their own pretentiousness.
Plot details are unsurprisingly thin on the ground, but the cast of new faces set to debut alongside franchise stalwarts Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss makes for an exciting ensemble, and a new theory speculates that one of them might end up as The Matrix 4‘s main antagonist.
As per the theory, after Hugo Weaving decided not to reprise the role of Agent Smith, there’s every chance that the fourth installment in the sci-fi series could decide to head in the complete opposite direction with the villain instead and the undeniably charismatic Neil Patrick Harris is about as far away from Weaving’s monotone menace as you could possibly get, making him the ideal candidate to torment Neo and Trinity throughout the movie.
As ScreenRant explains:
The Matrix has always toyed with the dichotomy between the real and digital worlds, as well the man vs. machine struggle. It would be entirely fitting for a human villain in The Matrix 4 to have the kind of ostentatious personality that directly opposes the digital Agent Smith. If The Matrix 4‘s main antagonist was a human, they’d most likely be leading some kind of pro-Matrix cult that advocates being “plugged-in” instead of existing in the real world. The leader of such a movement would need to have the oratory skills and performance flair required to maintain such a dangerous following of zealots, and Neil Patrick Harris is perfect for that style of villain.
Although he’s not exactly known for playing the bad guy, NPH proved to be a magnetic villain in Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and was an absolute blast as a crazed and drug-addled version of himself in the Harold and Kumar trilogy. Based on how downbeat the last two sequels were, The Matrix 4 would benefit from a fresh injection of energy and excitement, and having Neil Patrick Harris as a much more expressive and outgoing nemesis for Neo to tackle would certainly do the trick.