It’s time to free your mind, because the first trailer for Lana Wachowski's The Matrix Resurrections has been released, and all we can say is: “whoa.”
The first trailer seems to be what was shown as CinemaCon late last month, with Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) talking to a therapist, played by Neil Patrick Harris, saying “I had dreams that weren’t just dreams. Am I crazy?” The trailer is packed with homages to the original, including Neo stopping bullets mid-air, a glimpse at the “real world,” and Neo fighting a man (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who is very much a Morpheus-like character.
In the original trilogy, there were mentions of previous versions of the Matrix, and it seems like this film might be taking place in a newer iteration than what we saw in the first films. At one point in the trailer, Anderson meets a woman (Carrie-Anne Moss) in a coffee bar, and we see that some connections transcend the Matrix. As the name implies, it looks as though we might be seeing the resurrection of many of the ideas from previous films in a new generation, quite fitting, considering The Matrix Resurrections is co-written by Cloud Atlas writer David Mitchell.
Like the first film, this trailer has plenty of allusions to the Alice stories of Lewis Carroll. But with the distortions of reality, Anderson’s apparent reliance on drugs, and the trippy visuals, this first trailer also seems reminiscent of Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly, which also, fittingly, starred Reeves.
The Matrix Resurrections will see the return of Reeves as Neo, Moss as Trinity, Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe, Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian, and Daniel Bernhardt as Agent Johnson. Also joining The Matrix Resurrections are Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Andrew Caldwell, Priyanka Chopra, Jonathan Groff, Jessica Henwick, Ellen Hollman, Eréndira Ibarra, Toby Onwumere, Christina Ricci, Max Riemelt, and Brian J. Smith.
The Matrix Resurrections comes to theaters and HBO Max on December 22. Check out the first trailer for The Matrix Resurrections below.