Everyone Is Trying To Figure Out Where Morpheus Is In ‘The Matrix’ Trailer
The answer could lie in a now unplayable video game from 2005.
In the early hours of this morning, the new trailer dropped for The Matrix: Resurrections, the fourth instalment in the beloved series. But though extensive, the trailer left a number of questions, including one pressing, desperate query: where is Morpheus?
A meaty look at the digital universe of the franchise, the trailer teased the return of some major characters, namely Keanu Reeves’ Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity, who appear not to recognise one another when they meet up in a coffee shop. There are new faces too, from Jonathan Groff’s maybe-Agent to Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s major, mysterious and gun-toting hero.
But what of Morpheus? The tragic answer may lie in a now unplayable video game from 2005.
Cast your mind back to the era in which Matrix fever gripped the globe. Lana and Lily Wachowski, the directors of the original three films, expanded the universe of the franchise through a number of canonical tie-ins. There was The Animatrix, a linked series of animated shorts that filled out character backstory and revealed more of the intent of the insidious Sentinels. There was Enter The Matrix, an initially critically reviled but now cult video game in which gamers played as Ghost (played by Anthony Wong in the films) and Niobe (Jada Pinkett-Smith). And there was The Matrix Online, a massive, internet-connected MMO in which players interacted with each other and fought vicious gun battles.
It is that last title that holds the potential key to Morpheus’ disappearance. See, in the video game, Morpheus was shot dead in an alleyway by a mysterious assassin. It was a shocking, brutal death at the time — a major character offed in a cramped back alley
Really excited for a lot of people to find out Morpheus has been canonically dead since like 2007 or something because of an in-game event in The Matrix Online
— torrenting This is Us (@Yelix) September 9, 2021
I wonder if the new Matrix movie will address the supposedly-canon The Matrix Online game from 2005, where Morpheus is shot dead in an alley by a creepy assassin pic.twitter.com/wQxf48nv8H
— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) September 7, 2021
Of course, no-one need stay dead in the world of The Matrix. This is a universe populated by digital avatars and God-like figures, capable of all sorts of resurrections. And (spoiler warning for The Matrix: Revolutions) lest we forget, Trinity is canonically dead too. There’s every chance that Morpheus’ demise will be unwritten, and that he is one of the surprises that have been kept out of the trailer.
Maybe. Laurence Fishburne, who plays Morpheus in the original trilogy, has confirmed multiple times that he was not asked to return. But that’s not to say that Fishburne need be the only actor to don the famous circular glasses: there have long been rumours that Abdul-Mateen is playing a younger version of the character.
Guess we’ll have to wait until December this year to find out.