The Matrix Trilogy Star Doesn’t Understand How Dead Characters Are Returning

Plot details for The Matrix 4 are still being kept firmly under lock and key by director Lana Wachowski, and it’ll more than likely stay that way right up until the movie releases simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max at the end of December.

The recent sizzle reel promoting the streaming service’s huge roster of upcoming titles may have teased that the fourth entry in the series has been officially titled Matrix, but that’s as close as we’ve gotten to an official update on the project for a long time.

Obviously, the biggest question is how Keanu Reeves’ Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity will return, given that they both failed to make it out of Revolutions alive, although the final moments of the trilogy-closing chapter could have indicated that the simulation is far from linear. So far, we’ve heard everything from time travel to a master plan by The Oracle that could set the plot in motion, but all we know for sure is that The Matrix 4 is going to be a love story at heart.

Reloaded and Revolutions star Gina Torres isn’t sold on the idea of a fourth outing, though, which might have to do with the fact that she wasn’t asked to return as Cas, the widow of Nebuchadnezzar pilot Dozer, who was killed off in the groundbreaking original. In a recent interview, the actress questioned how dead characters will be able to return without compromising the narrative of the trilogy, saying:

“Not to be bitter or anything, but the people that are actually in the movie, I believe, died. And the people that aren’t didn’t. So that’s all I have to say about that. I’m so curious about where they’re going with this. And what’s their jumping off point and what story they want because it just felt like they told it.”

Given that the expanded Matrix franchise in general is a heady mix of theology, existentialism and blockbuster sci-fi, Lana Wachowski has no doubt figured out a storytelling device that makes sense within the context of the mythology, but whether audiences buy into it or not is another question altogether.