Is Neo destined to do some time travelling when he returns in The Matrix 4? In terms of the science fiction standards, The Matrix franchise has plenty of bases covered. Artificial intelligence trying to wipe out mankind, unknowingly living within a simulated reality, a powerful figure of prophecy, a David vs. Goliath style dystopia - all are present and correct within the world the Wachowski sisters first unleashed in 1999. One common genre trope The Matrix doesn't cover (explicitly, at least) is time travel. Although no one really can be sure when the story of The Matrix takes place, the events from humanity's fall to Neo's defeat of Agent Smith appear to transpire in one linear timeline.
After years of speculation and false starts, The Matrix 4 is finally happening. With Lana Wachowski returning to direct and Keanu Reeves confirmed to star alongside fellow Matrix alum Carrie-Anne Moss, excitement is high for another trip into the Matrix when the film releases in 2022. Lana has already promised a trippy ride, and given how groundbreaking and unique the original Matrix movie was, audiences won't be expecting anything less.
Naturally, plot details for The Matrix 4 remain concealed for now, but that hasn't stopped fans theorizing over what a fourth movie might entail. Has the war against the Machines started raging once again? Will Keanu Reeves still be playing Neo? How does Trinity come back to life? There are many questions and even more potential solutions, but one common denominator many fans keep coming back to is time travel.
Time Travel In The Matrix 4 Doesn't Need To Be "Real"
If time travel does ultimately become a key factor in The Matrix 4, a major point to address is how such technology comes about, as there's absolutely no sign of a TARDIS or DeLorean in the original trilogy of movies or the additional animated and comic material. While it's not currently clear how much longer after The Matrix Revolutions the fourth movie will be set, the ability to travel through time would be several notches above any of the tech seen previously. Everything that exists in the mythology of The Matrix is merely an exaggerated, advanced take on real-world tech, from virtual realities and artificial intelligence to violent drones and USB ports in the back of people's necks. Time travel, on the other hand, would be an entirely fictionalized addition to the lore.
Who in the landscape of The Matrix would be responsible for developing time travel in the first place? The freed people of Zion had access to computers and hover ships, but led a relatively low-tech lifestyle compared to the Machines on the outside, so it's unlikely they'd become advanced enough to travel through time. Moreover, several centuries of enforced servitude at the hands of Machines would probably put humanity off any more big science projects. If anyone cracks time travel in The Matrix, it'll be the Machines, but with this power, surely their conquest of humanity would be a perfectly-proportioned piece of cake, Neo's truce be damned.
Should The Matrix 4 dive down the time travel rabbit hole, it'll likely come with a typical Wachowski spin whereby Neo can only traverse through time within the Matrix. Rather than one side or the other building a literal time machine that can explore the past and future of Zion and the real world, the Machines could give Neo and Trinity access to their entire back catalog of every Matrix build ever created. In effect, this would offer the same possibilities as a traditional time travel story (the bumping into yourself, changing the timeline and maddening paradoxes) but in a framework unique and tailor-made for The Matrix, more akin to flicking through an old backup of a hard drive.
Young Morpheus Could Mean Time Travel In The Matrix 4
One of the big supporting arguments for time travel in The Matrix 4 is the possibility of a younger Morpheus making an appearance. Even before a fourth film was officially announced, rumors were circulating that Warner Bros. were developing a prequel or follow-up that would put a fresher-faced Morpheus in the title role. When Laurence Fishburne was then suspiciously absent from The Matrix 4's cast, it looked like that idea might've stuck, and now Yahya Abdul-Mateen is widely reported to be playing this long-suspected younger Morpheus. But how could this character actually feature alongside Neo and Trinity?
It's a strange paradox that Neo and Trinity in The Matrix 4 should look exactly as they did in The Matrix Revolutions. Both characters died in the third film, and however they get revived in the forthcoming installment, they would surely look exactly as they did before. Unfortunately, the cruel passage of time in the real world means Reeves and Moss will inevitably look at least a little older. Ironically, Morpheus is the only character who should look more aged in The Matrix's future, since he was the one still alive at the end of the original trilogy.
There aren't many obvious situations where Neo and a young Morpheus could physically meet, and arguably, time travel is the only semi-logical method of bringing these two disparate versions of the characters together. Neo didn't know Morpheus during his younger days, which rules out a flashback, and Zion never possessed the ability to go forward in time, meaning the best guess right now is that Neo will travel backwards through the past of the Matrix and encounter a version of Morpheus from before their first red pill/blue pill meeting.
Why Might Neo Time Travel In The Matrix 4?
If Neo time travels through past versions of the Matrix and encounters a young Morpheus, some might interpret this as simply watching back an old video, interacting with an echo of the past in a way that'll have no real consequence. However, time travel in The Matrix can be much more than that. The franchise has already established that despite the Matrix being a virtual plane, dying in the simulation will kill the person back in the real world. By the same ticket, the Machines could devise a scenario in which Neo's journey through Matrix history has the potential to fundamentally change the real world. For example, if Neo travels back and accidentally gets Morpheus killed before the two ever officially meet, then the entire events of The Matrix trilogy never happen and the real world is never saved, despite the time travel not being technically real.
This would present a fascinating paradox with real world parallels - something The Matrix is already famous for. Imagine a person going back through their social media posts and deleting a Tweet, but rather than that post no longer being available, all of reality is altered so that the tweet was never sent. This could be the crux of The Matrix 4's plot, with Neo travelling through the Matrix to prevent a future problem that arises in the real world sometime after the original trilogy. There's already plenty of speculation that The Matrix 4's villain will be a human rather than a Machine, and time travel slots alongside that idea perfectly - Neo and Trinity are resurrected by the Machines, who have developed a way to change the timeline via the Matrix because humanity once again leads itself to destruction in the future. To give The Matrix 4 a more familiar "good vs. evil" format, perhaps Neo and Trinity are pursued by this futuristic human villain throughout their adventures in the Matrix, like the T-1000 from Terminator or old man Biff from Back to the Future Part II.
As for why Neo and Trinity specifically are entrusted with this mission, the answer could be tied directly to their resurrections. If the Machines need someone without an attachment to the real world to comb through the timeline of the Matrix, who better to choose than their favorite version of The One and his lover, both of whom could've had their data saved and filed away following the end of The Matrix Revolutions?
