At the Las Vegas CinemaCon, the event where the big Hollywood studios entertain distributors with previously unseen material from their most anticipated releases, yesterday it was Warner Bros. Pictures’ turn to flex its muscles. And it did it with high-level weaponry: the first images of The Matrix: Resurrections, the new Matrix sequel directed by Lana Wachowski.
Warner is putting its relationship with distributors at risk, especially in the US, as a result of the controversial decision it made in late 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Throughout 2021, all its releases are taking place simultaneously in theaters and through the streaming platform HBO Max.
That includes The Matrix: Resurrections, since its foreseen release date is December 22, but the studio is confident that the pandemic situation will have improved considerably thanks to vaccination and the audience will opt for the spectacularity of the big screen to see the return of Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann Moss as Neo and Trinity.
So much so, that in addition to officially announcing the title of The Matrix: Resurrections for the first time, it also provided CinemaCon attendees with the screening of the first trailer for the film directed by Lana Wachowski alone, this time without her sister Lilly. It is not known when this trailer will be released online (making it coincide with the theatrical release of Dune doesn’t sound like a bad idea), but we do have descriptions of what can be seen in it.
The trailer begins with Keanu Reeves as Neo living in a futuristic version of San Francisco. He is talking to his therapist, played by Neil Patrick Harris, whom Neo asks if he is crazy. “We don’t use that word in here,” Harris replies. It seems that Neo is trapped in a simulation, just like the beginning of the original 1999 movie.
Not only that, but not Neo nor Trinity seem to remember anything of what happened since then. He encounters her in a coffee shop. “Have we met?,” she asks. Then Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” starts playing, while a pile of blue pills scatter across the frame.
“Time to fly,” says who looks like a younger version of Morpheus –played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen)– while handing Neo a red pill. This is followed by the familiar quick montage of action scenes, with impossible mid-air pirouettes, and martial arts punches that give way to the film title and conclude the teaser.
We will have to wait for future advances to find out what role the incorporations of Christina Ricci, Priyanka Chopra, Jessica Henwick and Jonathan Groff play in the Matrix universe. Unless, of course, Wachowski keeps it unknown until December 22.
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