Neo and a younger Morpheus could have their roles switched in The Matrix 4. While 1999's original The Matrix is considered a groundbreaking piece of cinema by the Wachowskis, the two movie sequels that followed are generally believed to have tainted the franchise rather than enhanced it. Nevertheless, this hasn't dampened fan enthusiasm for a modern Matrix sequel, and after many years of rumors, a fourth movie was finally announced in 2019, prompting movie fans to dive straight into the depths of their closets to dig out those forgotten full-length leather coats.
Predictably, not much is currently known about how The Matrix 4 will follow on from the existing trilogy, or where the story will go next. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are confirmed to return as Neo and Trinity, respectively, while Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith was written into the initial story draft according to the actor himself. The Merovingian will have a role in the new Matrix film, but more intriguingly, Yahya Abdul Mateen II has been added to the cast, and rumors persist that he'll be playing a young Morpheus.
The idea of an older (or at least contemporary) Neo and Trinity in The Matrix 4 alongside a more youthful iteration of Morpheus raises a host of questions and possibilities, but perhaps the most fascinating is the potential for Neo and Morpheus to switch places and flip their dynamic from the first movie.
Neo Is In The Matrix & Morpheus Is Young Again
Recent set photos from initial filming on The Matrix 4 appear to confirm that Neo once again finds himself within the Matrix's digital reality. Reeves is dressed in everyday clothes standing on a regular street, a far cry from the leather and sunglasses-clad deity he had transformed into by the end of The Matrix Revolutions. This would seem to hint towards some kind of timeline reset. Neo, or perhaps even Thomas Anderson, is either back to being a regular guy or trying to blend in a bit better than he used to.
As for Morpheus, reports that an earlier version of the character would be included in The Matrix 4 began even before Mateen joined the cast, but have subsequently started linking the Aquaman and Watchmen actor to the coveted role. While there could be an element of time travel at play in the upcoming sequel, the Matrix itself is the most likely culprit behind the trio's anomalous ages.
A New Matrix Reboot Began At The End Of Revolutions
At the end of the original Matrix trilogy, Neo gives his life to destroy Agent Smith, end the war with the Machines and reboot the Matrix, with the Architect promising that those still plugged-in would be freed. The young girl in the Oracle's care, Sati, creates a sunrise in honor of Neo, hinting that she, as a program born entirely out of love, was helping to craft the new, rebooted, peaceful Matrix. Despite this happy ending, there's plenty of reason to believe that another battle wasn't too far away. Not only does the Architect ponder how long peace will last, but the Matrix had already been rebooted multiple times before the events of the first movie. These legacy versions would play out the same cycle over and over, with each reincarnation of the One always choosing to maintain the status quo. Neo breaks these rules and, supposedly, the cycle.
When the world is rebooted again in The Matrix trilogy's finale, however, could this just be the start of another cycle with slightly altered variables? The unplugged citizens were supposedly going to be freed, and given how many of them would've likely taken the blue pill, this process may not have gone smoothly, endangering the fragile peace Neo worked so hard for, and fulfilling the Architect's ominous warning. Alternatively, perhaps the Machines are simply kicking up trouble again in response to the influx of humans from the Matrix. Whether the enemy is man or machine, it's plausible that Sati would respond by resurrecting the people who saved the world last time, Neo and Trinity, either as Matrix programs or by transcending her powers into reality, like Neo did.
The existence of a young Morpheus is far more curious. If Laurence Fishburne's present day Morpheus was still around in The Matrix 4, he'd surely jump at the chance to help out his old pals in their new quest, but if Morpheus had died by that point in time, why would he be resurrected as a younger man, while Neo and Trinity remained the same age? This conundrum suggests that if Mateen is playing a younger Morpheus, the character will be restored from an earlier version of the Matrix. A cloud back-up of Morpheus, if you will.
Does Neo "Wake Up" Before Morpheus In The Matrix 4?
If Keanu Reeves' Neo and Yahya Abdul-Mateen's Morpheus find themselves in the same cycle of the Matrix, it naturally follows that Neo is going to be the more "awake" of the two, even if he has to go through the entire painful and soggy process again. And this is where the switching of places comes into play. If Neo meets a younger Morpheus in the Matrix, the future Resistance leader would still be plugged-in. In a reverse of the events seen in the original movie, it would then be up to Neo to track down Morpheus (under a more human name, of course) and give him the "red pill/blue pill" dilemma Laurence Fishburne famously presented him with in 1999. Having opened Morpheus' eyes to the real world, it would then fall to Neo and Trinity to teach him the skills necessary to survive while unplugged.
This would essentially create a time loop. Neo frees and trains Morpheus in The Matrix 4, which allows Morpheus to free and train Neo in The Matrix, eventually becoming The One and freeing a young Morpheus in The Matrix 4, rinse and repeat. Which character woke first would be impossible to decipher, and this is the exact kind of philosophical musing The Matrix franchise is famous for. One wrinkle in this theory is that it would be a stretch to suggest Morpheus remembered meeting Neo from the start of the original Matrix movies, since there's no indication of this at all. A bit of memory trickery would be required to make everything fit neatly in existing canon.
Paradox aside, it would also be fascinating to see Neo as the mentor figure in The Matrix 4, teaching Morpheus while knowing that he was once afforded the same treatment by the same man in Morpheus' future, but Neo's past. Meanwhile, exploring what Morpheus was like before he became an ice-cool but fiercely determined leader of humanity would offer a brand new spin on the original films.
What The Neo/Morpheus Switch Means For The Matrix 4
Neo schooling a young and newly-unplugged Morpheus would mean The Matrix 4 lights up the 1999 movie in a whole new context. Their meeting in the new film might, for instance, explain why Fishburne's Morpheus held such unwavering faith in Neo - because somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembers meeting the man before. The time loop concept can even be developed further, with Neo sowing the seeds for Morpheus to find "Thomas Anderson" in the previous reboot of the Matrix, thus setting up his own rescue.
Keanu Reeves taking on the mentor role might indicate that he won't be the central protagonist of The Matrix 4, with his student adopting that mantle instead. The overarching development of Neo in the original trilogy was his journey from a sleepwalking nobody to a Jesus-like savior, and The Matrix 4 could replace that with Morpheus' journey from a rebellious and angry younger man to the reliable and stoic commander Neo knows he will become.
The fact that there's a Matrix 4 at all proves that Neo's sacrifice at the end of The Matrix Revolutions didn't work, for whatever reason. If finding an earlier version of Morpheus is key to correcting that state of affairs, Neo's new goal would probably be to pull the plug on the rebooted Matrix completely, not allowing another cycle to begin. The Matrix 4 would offer another fun existential dilemma if Morpheus helped achieve this as a young man, forgot he did so, and began his career as a freedom fighter completely unawares that he had already ensured the end of the Matrix entirely.
