The Matrix 4 Title Has Been Confirmed As The Matrix Resurrections

The movie we've been referring to informally as "The Matrix 4" now has a proper title...and it might sound familiar to you if you've been a /Film reader since, oh, the late 2000s? Warner Bros. has announced at CinemaCon that the official title for its upcoming "Matrix" sequel will be "The Matrix Resurrections." It has also shown a trailer to exhibitors and we have a description of that as well.

The title, "The Matrix Resurrections" (via Collider), aligns with what we ourselves reported back in January — and joked about even further back in 2009. It also puts "The Matrix" franchise in fine company with "Alien," another quadrilogy with "resurrection" in the title of its fourth film.

As for the trailer, THR reports that it begins with Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) in therapy, with no memory of the Matrix. Neil Patrick Harris is not the first face you might expect to see pop up in a "Matrix" trailer, but according to Deadline, he plays Anderson's therapist. Anderson/Neo appears to be marooned in a mundane existence, not unlike his life as an office worker and cubicle drone in the first "Matrix" movie. He runs into Trinity (Carrie Anne-Moss) in a coffee shop and asks her, "Have we met?"

It seems Neo is now doped up on blue pills. A young Morpheus-looking character soon shows up and offers him the old familiar red pill. Presumably, this is the character played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who has teased some of the cutting-edge camera technology that "The Matrix Resurrections" is utilizing.

Fans of "The Matrix" franchise may recall that there's a precedent for Neo being caught up in an ongoing cycle as The One. The version we met in previous movies wasn't the only One. It sounds like the Neo we meet in "The Matrix Resurrections" is back to, er, square One, along with the franchise itself, potentially. Hearing the description of this trailer almost makes it sound like director Lana Wachowski is going "The Force Awakens" route with "The Matrix Resurrections," doing a soft remake of the first film's plot.

The last time moviegoers checked in on the world of "The Matrix" was in 2003 when the first two sequels, "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," hit theaters within six months of each other. On its 15th anniversary, we defended "The Matrix Reloaded" as "the great misunderstood sequel of the 2000s." However, "Revolutions" is a movie that's harder to defend. We can only hope that "The Matrix Resurrections" will help repair the franchise's reputation without leaning too much on the same old beats as the first movie.

"The Matrix Resurrections," as it is now officially known, should hit theaters and HBO Max on December 22, 2021.