The Matrix Resurrections has just debuted its first trailer, and it finds Keanu Reeves’ Neo seeking the “truth” with a young Morpheus. The debut preview of the new sci-fi action movie starts with Neo talking to his therapist (Neil Patrick Harris), before we eventually see he and Trinity — once again played by Carrie-Anne Moss — meeting for what they believe is the first time, though the deja vu hits pretty hard. Neo winds up in the presence of Morpheus, who is much younger here, and portrayed by Candyman star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
It’s tough to decipher exactly what has happened in the 18 years since The Matrix Revolutions, when Neo defeated Agent Smith and the Matrix was rebooted, leading to peace between humanity and the machines. While there’s a lot we don’t know, one thing we do know is that this movie is gonna be an action-packed visual masterpiece. Some of the most thrilling moments come from seeing Reeves and Moss back in action, as well as franchise newcomer Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist, Game of Thrones), who has a number of incredible sequences just in the trailer.
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In addition to Reeves and Moss, other returning cast members include Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe, Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian, and Daniel Bernhardt as Agent Johnson. The film will also include a number of newcomers, such as the aforementioned Abdul-Mateen II, Harris, and Henwick. Joining them are Jonathan Groff, Toby Onwumere, Max Riemelt, Eréndira Ibarra, Priyanka Chopra, Andrew Caldwell, Brian J. Smith, Ellen Hollman and Christina Ricci.
The first three Matrix films were written and directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski. Only Lana returns to direct The Matrix: Resurrections, from a script she wrote with Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell. The movie is produced by Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow and is set to be released on Dec. 22. It will be available for HBO Max subscribers to stream the same day as its theatrical release.
Earlier this year, Harris spoke with IndieWire about working on The Matrix Resurrections, and he shared some details about Lana Wachowski’s unconventional filmmaking methods “It didn’t feel large because it felt like she was in her sweet spot, which was filming on the fly, filming using natural light,” the former How I Met Your Mother star said. “Sometimes you’d sit around for an hour waiting for the clouds to clear, and then you’d quickly film.”
Harris went on to say, “You’d film pages at a time in 30 minutes and then be done. You would think that a giant movie would be 100% storyboarded, animatics, and we’d be checking off shots. I think she lived that before three times over, and I would suspect that she wants to do things her own way now. It wasn’t often that you felt that you were doing something gigantic because she made it feel very intimate.”
