Neo and Morpheus team up with a new character in freshly released The Matrix Resurrections images. The upcoming film from writer-director Lana Wachowski is the fourth in The Matrix franchise, the original trilogy of which ran from 1999-2003. After having its release delayed due to the pandemic, The Matrix Resurrections is scheduled to open both in theaters and on HBO Max on December 22.
The trailer for The Matrix Resurrections has generated a lot of buzz from fans, as the film appears to depict an older Thomas Anderson (a.k.a. Neo) trapped within the Matrix, with no recollection of what occurred in the previous films - which ended with his sacrifice to broker peace between humans and machines. Keanu Reeves is returning for the role, as is Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity, but Morpheus will be played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II instead of Laurence Fishburne, creating speculation over when exactly the film is supposed to be set. While clearly depicting a new story, The Matrix Resurrections trailer included many callbacks to the 1999 original, including footage of this Neo and Morpheus engaging in a recreation of the famous dojo fight scene.
That fight is included among these new The Matrix Resurrections images shared by EW, though they also highlight the two teaming up with one of the film's new characters. Jessica Henwick, perhaps best known for playing Colleen Wing in Netflix's Marvel series Iron Fist, has been cast as Bugs, and relatively little is currently known about her character. The parallelism in this image, however, pretty clearly identifies her as a member of Team Morpheus. Check out the new stills below:
In the film's trailer, Henwick's blue-haired Bugs sports a white rabbit tattoo like the one that helped awaken Neo to the Matrix's existence in the original film, and she seems to play a similar role in The Matrix Resurrections. She is also shown having a Trinity-esque nighttime encounter with the police, displaying the superhuman abilities that come with full awareness of the simulation's unreality. While she obviously won't be replacing Trinity in the way Abdul-Mateen II is replacing Morpheus, Henwick looks set to occupy a key role in Wachowski's film as part of the team combatting the machines' subjugation of humanity.
These The Matrix Resurrections images can only add to the excitement that has been building for this film ever since the marketing team set up a clever, red-and-blue-pill-based website to create hype for its first teaser. While the exact nature of the plot is still unknown, battle lines are becoming increasingly clear as the movie's release date approaches, and Henwick's Bugs stands on the side that wants Neo to once again dispel the illusion of his mundane existence. While fans are surely excited to revisit beloved elements of the past films, such as the pictured dojo fight, getting to see new The Matrix Resurrections characters in action should be just as thrilling.
Source: EW
