The Matrix Resurrections star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II says the new movie is funnier than the original trilogy. Abdul-Mateen plays Morpheus in the highly-anticipated new Matrix sequel, replacing original trilogy star Laurence Fishburne.
Fishburne’s absence from the new Matrix film indeed took many fans by surprise, but the Morpheus actor isn’t the only key contributor from the first trilogy who is no longer around. Lana Wachowski of course is back to direct the fourth Matrix film, but she’s without her co-director Lilly Wachowski. Original Matrix trilogy bad guy Hugo Weaving is also gone, but Jonathan Groff is now aboard as the replacement for Weaving's Agent Smith (who may be Agent Smith himself or an entirely new character who serves the same purpose).
According to Matrix Resurrections’ Morpheus Abdul-Mateen, there’s another new wrinkle in store for fans when the long-awaited sequel hits theaters. In Abdul-Mateen’s recent GQ profile, it was mentioned that the new movie seems funnier than the original films, and the Morpheus actor confirmed that this is intentional. “I hope so,” he said when discussing whether audiences would find the new movie humorous, adding “Tonally, it’s a bit different.”
Humor of course was not a huge part of the equation in the original Matrix films. Indeed it can be argued that the sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions suffered greatly by becoming too full of themselves as the Wachowskis attempted to explore heavier and heavier philosophical ground. Of course that doesn’t mean the original movies were entirely without dashes of humor here and there. The character of Agent Smith as played by Weaving certainly could be funny in his completely smug villainy, a thing Weaving played up with a certain amount of relish. Some would argue too that there was an inherent comedy to Keanu Reeves’ dead-serious performance as Neo – though that comedy was not necessarily intentional. Joe Pantoliano also provided some humor in the first film as Cypher, as his wise-guy on-screen persona is always automatically somewhat funny.
But what Abdul-Mateen is suggesting is that Matrix Resurrections goes beyond having some dashes of humor and is outright attempting to be a funnier film than the original movies. On the one hand, this could be taken as a necessary course-correction after the original Matrix sequels went way too far in the direction self-seriousness. On the other hand, it could be argued that overt humor doesn’t really have a place in the Matrix universe. It remains to be seen exactly how The Matrix Resurrections mixes things up tonally from the older films, but the glimpses that have already been given of the movie via trailers suggest it doesn’t stray too far from the originals visually, and it certainly covers a lot of the same thematic ground that made the first Matrix trilogy so fascinating to so many people. Too much broad and silly humor certainly would be a mistake, but just the right amount of comic relief might be the perfect thing to bring life back to the Matrix franchise.
Source: GQ
