One Key Shot In The New Matrix Resurrections Trailer Reveals When The Movie Takes Place

Whoa. 

"The Matrix Resurrections" trailer is here, and director Lana Wachowski has delivered a whole new slew of mysteries for fans of the franchise to devour. Fans have been trying to figure out exactly when "The Matrix Resurrections" will take place on the "Matrix" timeline, and one tiny clip from the new trailer might have finally given us the answer. 

Jada Pinkett Smith has been confirmed to return as resistance fighter and pilot captain Niobe in "The Matrix Resurrections," and the new trailer revealed a first glimpse of how her character has fared in the time between now and the end of the last movie. While both Keanu Reeves' Neo and Carrie Anne Moss's Trinity have aged as much as the actors who play them, Pinkett Smith appears in old age makeup, looking much older than either of her costars. 

Her battle scars and age-lines likely mean that decades have passed in the real world since Neo and Niobe had seen one another. Trinity has been kept in one of the stasis tubes the machines use to plug people into the Matrix and siphon their energy, and it's entirely possible that Neo has as well. Chilling out in a vat of goo tends to do wonders for your skin, apparently. 

Niobe's romantic relationship with Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) ended before the original film trilogy began, but her inclusion in both "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions" helped give Morpheus depth and introduced the wider world of the rebellion and Zion. The last we saw her, she was thanking Neo for ending the war with the machines. With those battle scars, I'm guessing the war wasn't as over as she thought. That, or humans decided to war amongst themselves. Either way, poor Niobe has been through it, and she likely has some very interesting stories to share. 

Time has clearly passed for Niobe in the real world, but what about the characters who inhabit the Matrix? The programs are ageless, so Agent Smith returning in a different form as "Mindhunter" actor Jonathan Groff isn't a big stretch. We'll also be seeing a much-younger version of Morpheus, played by Yahya Abdul Mateen II, though he's probably a digital version of some kind, as we've only seen footage of him inside the Matrix. Morpheus might have uploaded himself to the Matrix fully when his body aged too greatly, or he might have died and had some part of himself put into the program. It's entirely possible that the Morpheus we see is fabricated completely by the machines, too, as a way to get to Neo. 

Whatever the case, we now know that the events of "The Matrix Resurrections" take place long after the end of the third film. We'll find out exactly what that means for Neo, Trinity, Niobe, and the rest of the futuristic fighting force when the movie debuts in theaters and on HBO Max on December 22, 2021.