This article contains major spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections
The Matrix Resurrections is now out and in classic Matrix fashion will provoke debate amongst fans for years with its franchise meta-commentary and constant flashbacks to the originals. One of the most interesting aspects is that Resurrections is set sixty years after Revolutions, with almost all the first trilogy’s characters having died in the interim.
Neo and Trinity have had their lives extended by the machines, though the only familiar face in the real world is Jada Pinkett Smith’s now elderly Niobe. This means that Lawrence Fishburne’s Morpheus is now long-dead, and it seems that the events of late-2000s MMORPG The Matrix Online are indeed canon.
This was set in the wake of Revolutions and saw Morpheus – now the leader of the human council – demanding the return of Neo’s body from the machine city. We now know why they didn’t want to give him and Trinity up, but without a response, Morpheus begins a series of terrorist attacks designed to expose the artifice of the Matrix to everyone.
During one of his attacks, he’s surprised and killed by a masked figure, and it appears this is officially how his story ends. In Resurrections, we see a memorial statue to him, indicating he’s still an important historical figure to all freed humans.
His influence is still felt in Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Resurrections‘ ‘Morpheus’, a program created by a suppressed Neo to help him break free of the Matrix’s controls. He’s eventually revealed to be an amalgam of his memories of Agent Smith and Morpheus, ending up with a personality quite distinct from the original.
So, sadly, Fishburne’s Morpheus is gone – but at least his spirit lives on.
The Matrix Resurrections is now in theaters.