The veil of secrecy thrown over the majority of high profile sequels, reboots and legacy follow ups these days has created a unique phenomenon where every past and present talent to have played a significant part in any previous iteration is asked if they’re going to be involved, and even when they say no, nobody believes them.
Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield have gone on the record saying that the latter isn’t part of Spider-Man: No Way Home, but fans are still expecting both Garfield and Maguire to swing by. Emma Stone also denied she’d cameo as Gwen Stacy after being heavily rumored, and now Laurence Fishburne has been forced to once again make it clear he’s not part of the fourth installment in The Matrix franchise.
The actor revealed a long time ago that he simply wasn’t invited to return as Morpheus, but in a new interview to promote Liam Neeson’s upcoming Netflix action thriller The Ice Road, Fishburne was forced to repeat himself yet again after being subjected to a line of Matrix-related questioning.
“I’m not involved. You’ll have to talk to Lana Wachowski. The only thing I can tell you is that Lana Wachowski can answer those questions for you better than I can.”
There was talk that Yahya Abdul-Mateen II had been cast as a younger version of the wizened exposition machine, but Keanu Reeves appeared to debunk that when he said The Matrix 4 wouldn’t involve flashbacks or time travel, and continues the story that looked to have drawn to a close when Revolutions was released in 2003.
We still don’t even know what the sci-fi action blockbuster is called, although fingers have been pointed in the direction of The Matrix Resurrections, but at this point it’s probably best not to get your hopes up about Fishburne and his tiny sunglasses returning to the fold.