Earlier in December, our sources told us that Aquaman star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II had been cast as a younger version of Morpheus in The Matrix 4. And now, our scoop is being widely confirmed as true, with multiple sites reporting that he is indeed playing the role.
You might think that this indicates that the film will be a prequel about Morpheus being liberated from the Matrix prior to the events of the first movie, but apparently, things are going a be a bit more complicated than that. We’re hearing that the pic will be a true sequel to The Matrix Revolutions, exploring the ‘next’ Matrix formed after the climax of that film.
Rumor has it we’ll see Keanu Reeves’ Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity return having uploaded digital copies of themselves to the new world. Meanwhile, Morpheus will still be exploring the Matrix, albeit projecting an image of his younger self into it – as played by Abdul-Mateen II.
If this proves to be true, it’ll be interesting to see it play out. After all, the division between your ‘real’ body and how you see yourself in the Matrix is one of those elements that was never fully explored in the original movies. Word is that the character of Switch in the original Matrix was supposed to be split between two actors: in the real world Switch would be a played by a male and in the Matrix by a woman. Warner Bros. nixed the idea, but given the Wachowski’s own gender transitions, it shows that they’ve been thinking about this stuff for a long time.
But leaving that aside for a moment, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II would make for a great Morpheus. The guy has been on a major winning streak in 2019 and if anyone can capture the cool physicality and confidence of the character in The Matrix 4, it’s him.
