I honestly can't tell if I'm really smart or really stupid about The Matrix Resurrections. The trailer dropped Thursday and I've seen it at least 10 times by now. I'm surprised that I have figured things out so easily (which means I'm probably dead wrong) but there are a lot of things to cover, so I'm going to just dive right in.
1. Why are some characters being played by the original actors but not others?
There's a two-fold answer to this one that makes a lot of sense. One has to do with time, and the other has to do with the world that The Matrix built initially. In the actual world, both Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving are now 60. They also had a hard time getting into Wu Ping shape to start with--I mean, they did it, but I think injuries would make either one a poor choice to reintegrate into this world. Meanwhile, Keanu has been doing more action-oriented things than the others, keeping in Wu Ping shape, honestly, by working continuously with Chad Stahelski for the last 7 years. In other words: Keanu's still in fighting shape and Fishburne and Weaving probably aren't.
The second part has to do with the world that's been set up by the Wachowskis. In the first movie, we're shown the fields where "babies are not born, they are grown". This assumes that: the machines have a lot of genetic material to deal with, and it would make a lot of sense to use the same material over and over if it produces good crops, like using the best seeds. There's no reason they haven't found a way to replicate it.
In other words: everyone in the Matrix probably has several clones at various stages of development. The way to make sure they don't run into each other is to spread them out within the Matrix itself.
They've all been there before.
If this is true, then the previous versions of the One may in fact have been versions of Neo--not just other people with the code, but that actual DNA. He's been suitably designed for this because the program required his existence, and he was chosen. Why not recycle to make things easier? Waste not, want not.
(For those of you who question why the previous versions of Neo were more focused on humanity as a whole to save as opposed to being more attached specifically to Trinity, perhaps Trinity and Neo were never in proximity before, or maybe the Architect killed her early in the other iterations to ensure that the One would reboot the system properly.)
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was chosen as a younger version of Morpheus, and it's pretty good casting. Jonathan Groff is almost certainly playing an upgraded, rebooted, reintegrated Agent Smith.
2. Sati, Oracle, or Yes?
We have quite a number of new faces that are portrayed by women, so I have to ask the question: does the Oracle have a new face (almost certainly), and where is Sati? For those of you who don't remember, she was the child in The Matrix Revolutions that was created by two other programs. She was also able to control aspects of the Matrix and was a favorite of the Oracle. Many are assuming that Priyanka Chopra-Jonas is playing the Oracle...but I wonder if she's playing Sati. Or have Sati and the Oracle integrated into one program?
3. Memory is a tricky thing
If I'm right about the Neos being clones, this begs the question: why does this Neo appear to be more powerful than previous iteration? I posit that, just as interacting with the extra code by Neo going "inside" Agent Smith at the end of the original movie gave Agent Smith expanded abilities, "our" Neo's ability to trod the untaken path unwittingly changed the code that is somehow embedded inside him, and when this code gets attached to the newer version, it has some (or all) of that Neo's knowledge embedded inside the code. All this version has to do is unlock the memories.
4. When are we?
This question would answer a lot of the others that are bandied about the Internet at the moment, such as "What about the truce that Neo's death brokered?" We don't know how long it's been--it's possible that it is the same time differential that it's been for us (22 years since the original). It could be 150 years. We don't know. I believe that Neo's existence is essential for the programs to operate properly...something the Architect didn't count on.
5. Niobe
This is the biggest question I have: where's Jada? We didn't see her in the trailer.
I'm sure it's going to be terrific. I remember the scuttlebutt about why the latter two-thirds of the original trilogy was not as good as the first (original, still the best, and still my favorite movie of all time), and I remember hearing that originally, the Wachowskis had written the trilogy...and The Matrix was the second movie in it. So they had to drag out the material in the third into two very long parts.
I can only hope that this is as good as we need it to be in this crazy time. Lana, girl, come through for us.
