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The Matrix 4 trailer finds Keanu Reeves lost in a new simulation

Plug into The Matrix Resurrections this December

Toussaint Egan is a curation editor, out to highlight the best movies, TV, anime, comics, and games. He has been writing professionally for over a decade.

Finally, finally we can watch The Matrix 4 trailer. Shortly after the launch of an intricate, tease-friendly website, we have a clear look at Lana Wachowski’s highly anticipated follow-up to the original Matrix trilogy. The Matrix Resurrections trailer premiered on Thursday in all of its mind-bending glory.

The trailer features Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, reprising their roles as mirror-shades-touting freedom fighters Neo and Trinity. Well, not exactly. In Resurrections, the pair appear to be playing “new” characters once again being woken up to the fact that they’re living in a simulation designed by robot overlords. Neo doesn’t know he’s Neo anymore, but a new character, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (HBO’s Watchmen, Candyman) with extreme Morpheus vibes, breaks him free of his virtual prison. Or maybe he’s not Neo, just a lookalike with a John Wick beard.

While all of this certainly sounds and looks a lot like the original Matrix movie, right down to the fight in the dojo, it’s hard to know what exactly is going on. It’s possible that the movie’s “Resurrections” title could give us a clue that this new version of Neo has to be reborn, or it could be that someone entirely new needs to be resurrected. Blurring the reality further are glimpses of footage from the original trilogy projected behind characters as they run and gun to the song “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane. Whatever the case, the trailer resurrects the heady, action-filled promise of The Matrix, even after all these years.

Written by Aleksandar Hemon, Lana Wachowski, and author David Mitchell, who previously collaborated on the Netflix sci-fi drama series Sense8, and whose 2004 novel Cloud Atlas was adapted into a 2012 feature film by Wachowski and her sister Lilly, The Matrix Resurrections takes place — again, in theory — after the events of 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions. That movie saw the (assumed) end of the Human-Machine war and defeat of Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). In addition to Reeves and Moss, several other stars such as Jada Pinkett Smith and Lambert Wilson are set to return, reprising their roles as Captain Niobe of the Logos and The Merovingian, respectively. The film will also introduce new characters played by new additions to the series including Abdul-Mateen, Neil Patrick Harris (Gone Girl), Jessica Henwick (Game of Thrones), Jonathan Groff (Mindhunter) and Christina Ricci (Speed Racer).

The Matrix Resurrections premieres on Dec. 22 in theaters and on HBO Max.

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