Laurence Fishburne Was Rebuffed When He Offered To Return For ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ So He Has Conditions For A Potential Fifth Movie: “It Depends On The Circumstances, Who Is Involved”
One would think Laurence Fishburne was irreplaceable as Morpheus, a character he originated and embodied so well. Yet, when The Matrix Resurrections came around, the producers proved that was not the case. They subbed the veteran actor with the on-the-rise Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, which was purely a corporate move and not what Fishburne would have liked to see occur.
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He wanted to be in the fourth installment, as he told the panel on The View recently, and even “offered” his services. The producers, however, didn’t “respond well to that” for whatever reason and may have screwed themselves if they want to circle back to him for a future sequel.
“It depends on the circumstances, who is involved, how well the script has been written, if they offer me… because I offered my services to the fourth Matrix, and they didn’t respond well to that. It’s not like I didn’t say, ‘Oh, I’d like to offer my services.’ I did, and for whatever reason, that didn’t happen, OK. That’s the truth. So we’ll see,” Fishburne explained via Collider.
The Matrix Resurrections didn’t have the impact of the first three films, especially the first. To most, it came across as a hopeless cash grab and poorly conceived nostalgia bait that was also truant, to say the least. Fishburne is noticeable by his absence, and when Variety caught up with him in 2022, they wanted to know his view from the outside.
Though he tried to be diplomatic, the actor clearly wasn’t impressed. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. And it wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be,” Fishburne said. “But I thought Carrie-Anne and Keanu really did their thing. Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
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As far as missing out, he doesn’t think he did. “No, not really,” the Fled star remarked succinctly. Anyone who’s seen Resurrections would say those who haven’t aren’t missing much, either. Even its release in December 2021, which was day-and-date with the theatrical window, leaves the perception that the sequel was an afterthought.
Ultimately, Matrix 4 was the final nail in the coffin for its production studio, Village Roadshow. They took Warner Bros. to court over its distribution and later declared bankruptcy. After that, the sensible thing to do would be to admit defeat.
Still, Warner refuses and has announced that the fifth Matrix is in development. Lana Wachowski is executive producing, and Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods) will fill the director’s seat.
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