The Matrix Resurrections Trailer Might Confirm A Plot Point From The Matrix Online

The first trailer for The Matrix Resurrections has dropped and the internet has gone wild. But the big questions is: has The Matrix Online MMO changed the fabric of the franchise by killing off Morpheus while we weren’t paying attention?

If you haven’t seen the absolutely fantastic, Alice in Wonderland-saturated trailer yet – here it is:

YouTube video

One key thing that fans picked up on right away is the absence of a key character: Morpheus. Yes, there’s a character who strongly resembles Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus. There’s a recreation of the iconic dojo fight from the first movie. But it definitely isn’t the Morpheus – or a least, as we’ve known him.

Speculation about why he’s missing has been rife online. But the current winning theory? Morpheus isn’t in the trailer because he died in the now-dead video game, The Matrix Online. 

The Matrix Online (or MxO) supposedly picked up where the movies left off, continuing the stories of the main characters and introducing new ones. The Wachowski sisters even seemed to endorse this view, saying in an interview for IGN (content warning in the original interview for deadnames):

“…it now makes perfect sense to us that they should inherit the storyline. For us, the idea of watching our baby evolve inside the virtual bubble-world of this new radically developing medium, which has in our opinion the potential of combining the best attributes of films and games, of synthesizing reality TV with soap opera, RPGs and Mortal Combat, is fantastically exciting.”

Spoilers for The Matrix Online

Why does this matter? Well, because (and spoiler alert for MxO) in the game, Morpheus is dead. After waiting for the return of Neo’s body, the man he believed would save the world, Morpheus snaps. He sets off code bombs against the Matrix and, in retaliation, they send an assassin to take him out as you can see here. The Matrix Online was officially closed down in 2009. You can watch the final hour of the MxO in a YouTube by Giant Bomb video.

Credit: Sony Online Entertainment

As PC Gamer pointed out – Neo and Trinity are also technically dead, following the events of The Matrix: Revolutions. As they do appear in the trailer for The Matrix: Resurrections, it’s possible that the writers could either be holding out on showing Fishburne or write him back in at a later date.

Fishburne himself did say in an interview from June that he is not in the next Matrix movie – and that we’d have to ask Lana Wachowski as to why. This could be read two ways – either Fishburne is slightly resentful he wasn’t invited back or he’s implying the director has a reason for not inviting him back that only she can explain.

Either way – it’s a mysterious hook in a really intriguing trailer. Do you think Laurence Fishburne is lying and he really is in the movie? Do you think Morpheus is really dead in the latest Matrix movie? Tell us all your weirdest theories on our social media. We’re hungry for off the wall ideas…

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Featured Image Credit:  Warner Bros Pictures