With the internet currently in an uproar over the imminent theatrical release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, it’s been a bit hard for movie fans to remember that there’s still another big upcoming franchise release but
The Matrix Resurrections‘ publicity team has just put out a super action-packed featurette to remind them that the latest installment in the fan-favorite franchise opens next weekend.
Cast members Keanu Reeves, Carrie Anne Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen, Neil Patrick Harris, and others all appear in the short, which offers some up to now unseen footage of the latest franchise installments intense action sequences.
And yes, he still does know kung-fu.
The featurette contains several shout-outs to the previous films, including a martial arts training sequence between Reeves’ Neo and Abdul-Mateen’s alternate version of Morpheus and a helicopter firing into a skyscraper. A palpably thrilled Reeves anchors the short and widely praises both director Lana Wachowski and his fellow cast members. “No one does mayhem like Lana Wachowski,” states Reeves, who comments on his own approach to action as acting. His fellow castmates are just as effusive in their praise of the director and Reeves himself, with Moss stating, “With all the action I really look to Keanu as a teacher. He’s so gifted in this genre. His mastery is just really unbelievable.”
One thing the featurette does not reveal is how Reeves’ character, Neo, presumed dead at the end of the third chapter of the films, is reintroduced. The Matrix Resurrections jumps twenty years after the events of The Matrix Revolutions. The character appears to be living an everyday life somewhat akin to his existence prior to taking the red pill and awakening to the existence of The Matrix in the first film when he meets a woman who resembles Trinity. Reeves and Moss appear to be the only returning members of the original cast, but the film features a cast studded with acting vets and up and comers alike.
The Matrix Resurrections will be released in the US on December 22, both theatrically and streaming on HBO Max.