The Matrix Resurrections is the upcoming fourth feature film in the Matrix movie series and after a long wait, the first trailer finally dropped. The franchise has gone beyond its initial trilogy. It has given us an animated anthology film in The Animatrix, comics, and video games to tie us over to this day. 1999’s The Matrix is still, to this day, one of the most influential movies ever made. It still holds up thematically and in terms of pure movie-making prowess, but after both sequels didn’t manage to resonate as much with audiences there never seemed to be much certainty surrounding an eventual return to the world created by the Wachowskis.
In 2017, almost fifteen years after The Matrix Revolutions premiered, it got reported that a relaunch was in development at Warner Bros. At the time neither of the Wachowskis, who directed the trilogy, was attached to the project. It wasn’t until the summer of 2019, following the official announcement that the studio had greenlit a sequel, that Lana Wachowski was confirmed to be returning as writer and director. This time she was returning without her sister Lilly Wachowski by her side. It also got reported that Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss would be reprising their iconic roles as Neo and Trinity.
In the following months, the cast grew significantly, with the additions of Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman, Watchmen), Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist, Game of Thrones, Love and Monsters), Jonathan Groff (Mindhunter), Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother), Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Christina Ricci (The Addams Family, Monster). As for other returning actors, Jada Pinkett Smith and Lambert Wilson signed on to the project meaning Niobe and The Merovingian will also return.
Principal photography began in February 2020 in San Francisco, before moving to Chicago and Berlin, Germany. While filming in California, it shared the city as a stage with both Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Venom: Let There be Carnage, before moving to the studios in Germany, where Uncharted was also filming. Production wrapped in November 2020, around the same time the project’s final release date was settled with the studio eyeing a December 2021 release date. It took another nine months for the title to be confirmed as The Matrix Resurrections in August 2021, after some leaks already hinted at it for some time.
The first footage was privately shown at Cinemacon before the trailer announcement on September 7 giving us a few glimpses of the full trailer that finally dropped. You can check it out right here:
