Plenty of legacy sequels have fallen into the trap of leaning too heavily into nostalgia, hoping that a few recognizable faces and some callbacks to events that unfolded in previous installments will be enough to draw in an audience, but The Matrix Resurrections is putting a brand new spin on that formula.
The most recent full-length trailer was littered with nods, winks and references to the groundbreaking 1999 original, but director Lana Wachowski appears to be taking the story down a completely new and unexpected path by adding a layer of self-awareness to the proceedings.
Warner Bros. and HBO Max have released the first official clip from the sci-fi actioner ahead of a hybrid theatrical and streaming debut on December 22, and Resurrections is both mirroring the first film’s basic setup while simultaneously moving the action forward by almost two decades and setting the stage for a fresh tale.
Video phones keep people jacked into the Matrix, phonebooths have become an outdated method of traversing the world, and the Operators have a much different form of communication than the simple earpieces we’d seen in the past. It’s all very interesting, then, and if The Matrix Resurrections can live up to its undoubted potential, we could be in for something truly special when the cyberbunk blockbuster arrives in less than two weeks.