The second official trailer for the upcoming The Matrix Resurrections is here, and the filmmakers have made it abundantly clear that “change” is a central theme.
The trailer starts out with Neo staring at a black cat, while Trinity can be heard uttering the line, “A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something,” from the original 1999 film. What exactly that entails, however, remains to be seen.
Throughout its 1:01 long running time, Trinity’s voice can be heard repeating the line in the background, while the word “change” appears at the 0:31 mark.
This should concern anyone who has spent even a minor amount of time paying attention to the cultural shift in Hollywood over the last several years, particularly when it comes to social justice messaging.
Could it be that Lana Wachowski has decided to infuse this latest iteration of The Matrix with woke politics? It would stand to reason, given how many beloved franchises have been hijacked by far-Left political activists seeking to undo everything that came before.
Calls for concern will undoubtedly and inevitably be met with labeling and name-calling by folks on the hard Left, who believe that the solution to any cultural debate is simply to retreat back into the comfortable trench of character assassination.
For the rest of us, however, we’ve seen the writing on the wall. Star Wars, Doctor Who, Star Trek, the MCU, and most recently, Masters of the Universe: Revelation have all spiraled into the asphalt, thanks to writers and directors who prioritized politics before story.
Classic Doctor Who scriptwriter Terrance Dicks once said “If you’re concentrating on putting over a political message, rather than on doing a really good show… maybe you can do, but it would be hellish difficult.” He also cited the danger of losing the focus of a show, to the detriment of the audience.
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Which brings us back to The Matrix Resurrections. By all accounts, the first trailer looked like an incredible new take on the classic trilogy, and it’s hard not to get excited at the prospect of seeing Neo and Trinity back together again.
However, the second trailer’s rapid-fire editing does reveal a few points of major concern, specifically several scenes showing side-by-side comparisons of Neo and Trinity appearing to swap roles. This would be part and parcel of a larger drive within Hollywood to replace lead male actors with female leads, rather than invent new characters.
We’ve seen it play out across the board, especially in the aforementioned Masters of the Universe: Revelation, which went over like a lead balloon with He-Man fans. It has also taken precedence within the Arrowverse, where heroes like the Flash and Oliver Queen all became side characters on their own shows, whilst female characters took center stage.
Of course, there is the possibility that we’re merely overthinking things, given everything fans have been forced to endure in the recent past.
At one point in the trailer, Trinity appears to digitally decompose, which suggests she might be some sort of illusion, or a painful memory that Neo’s mind is attempting to bring to the surface. It’s possible that Neo himself is just a phantom character in a larger story, seeing as how both he and Trinity’s human bodies perished in The Matrix Revolutions. We just don’t know.
That’s of little consolation at this point, however. Hollywood has conditioned diehard pop culture fans on both sides of the political aisle to expect the worst, and alienated them in the process.
Disney’s attempts to leverage its Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) superheroes into several streaming series has not fared particularly well, and its last three big budget films have performed quite poorly, across the board.
The CW’s Arrowverse has been hemorrhaging viewers over the last 4 seasons, leading Supergirl to call it quits with less than half a million viewers in tow.
It remains to be seen whether The Matrix Resurrections will adopt the same “this didn’t work, so let’s do more of it” model that has permeated our popular culture.
The argument continues to rage over whether forced identity politics and quotas are better than natural, well-written characters, regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation. We believe the latter, and it’s a safe bet most fans do, as well.
Related: Keanu Reeves Claims Warner Bros. Was Not Ready For A Transgender Character In The Matrix
It’s important to remember that Neo was originally slated to be played by Will Smith, and that would have been just as good as Keanu Reeves, or a female actor taking the lead role.
Morpheus, of course, was played by black actor Laurence Fishburne, and quickly became a huge fan favorite.
Carrie-Anne Moss played Trinity to perfection, at a time when strong female characters weren’t shouted about from a political soapbox, but simply accepted as cool and positive.
What matters is character development, a well-written story, and of course, a lot of heart and soul. All of these things go out the window when priority is placed on hijacking established characters, and replacing them for the sake of “equity.”