Long before The Matrix 4 was officially confirmed to be in development, there was talk making the rounds that a reboot was on the cards, one that would focus on a young Morpheus and track his rise from tech-savvy conspiracy theorist to the wizened old sage and exposition machine, eventually manifesting himself into the sonorous form of Laurence Fishburne in the original trilogy.
All tales of that particular variety were eventually debunked when it was revealed that Lana Wachowski was bringing back Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss for a direct sequel set after the events of Revolutions. Since then, all sorts of rumors have been making the rounds regarding plot and character details, with the latest coming full circle and offering that Aquaman star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is in fact playing young Morpheus after all.
We’ve previously heard from the outlet in question that Jonathan Groff has replaced Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith and the plot unfolds 60 years in the future with Jada Pinkett Smith getting aged up as Niobe, even though John Anderson will reportedly also be a video game developer tasked by his bosses at Warner Bros. to develop a fourth entry in The Matrix series for consoles, so if all that wildly differing information ends up panning out then it sounds like we’re going to be bombarded with mindf*ckery in December.
Fishburne has reiterated several times over that he isn’t involved with The Matrix 4, but he never said that Morpheus wasn’t. In some cases recasting a beloved character with a younger actor can come off as lazy, but Abdul-Mateen II is a great talent that’s rapidly ascending up the Hollywood ladder, so if he is inheriting the tiny sunglasses then there are definitely far worse choices available.
