It’s been almost two decades, but next month it’s finally time to jack back in. The Matrix Resurrections is coming this December, with Lana Wachowski returning to the iconic high-concept franchise that redefined action in the early 2000s. The first trailer blew us away in September, but in classic Matrix fashion, it raised far more questions than it answered.
One of the biggest is how the lead characters survived the events of The Matrix Revolutions. That ended with Trinity being impaled as their ship clashed and Neo sacrificing his life to end the war between machines and humans. But, judging by the trailer and this just-released image, we can upgrade their situation from dead to very much alive.
Current fan speculation is that the machines recovered their bodies, wiped their memories, and plugged them back into the Matrix. In the first trailer, we saw brief shots of Neo’s body plugged into a gooey pod and his eyes being burnt out—a strong indication this is the same Neo from the original trilogy.
This means the new movie could see the pair rediscovering the true nature of their reality, but their ‘real’ bodies being so busted they can’t jack out.
However this all pans out, Resurrections will continue The Matrix‘s reputation for mind-bending action sequences that mess with the flow of time – and advances in CGI technology mean they’re now more jaw-dropping than ever. The trailer also demonstrates a subtle shift in aesthetic, moving away from the green and black of the original movie and towards a brighter palette.
The Matrix Resurrections looks to be a departure from the original movies, meaning it’s likely to split opinion when it hits theaters in December. I’m optimistic, and the simple fact that I’m hyped for a Matrix movie in 2021 feels damn good.
The Matrix Resurrections hits theaters on 24 December 2021.
