Who is Morpheus in ‘The Matrix Resurrections’?

This article contains major spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections

Ever since first The Matrix Resurrections casting news began to leak out, fans were theorizing who Yahya Abdul-Mateen II would be playing. Before we knew anything about the film, most assumed he was cast as a younger version of Morpheus and that the new movie would be a prequel. When the trailers made it clear that it was a sequel, some concluded he was a creation of the Matrix designed to deceive Neo.

It turns out that everyone was wrong. The new Morpheus is a program created by Neo with the subconscious goal of getting him out of the Matrix. Rather than being a straightforward clone of Fishburne’s Morpheus, he’s actually a mixture of Neo’s memories of both him and Agent Smith, each of whom was key to his ascension as The One.

After Neo is freed from the Matrix (again), the new Morpheus joins the crew of the Mnemosyne as an ‘exomorphic-particle codex’, allowing him to interact with the real world as a humanoid cloud of metal balls. He goes on to prove extremely useful in rescuing Trinity, as his form allows him to infiltrate spaces as a liquid.

We also find out what happened to Fishburne’s Morpheus. In a visit to the new human city of IO, we learn he became the unanimously elected head of the human council and has been immortalized as a statue. There’s nothing in the film to suggest that the events of The Matrix Online aren’t canon, meaning Morpheus likely died at the hands of ‘The Assassin’ after planting a bomb.

As the film closes, it’s unknown what the future holds for the new Morpheus. Though he completed his goal of freeing Neo and Trinity, his work isn’t done yet, though given how much disdain this movie has for unnecessary sequels I doubt we’ll see him again anytime soon.

The Matrix Resurrections is now in theaters.