The Matrix changed everything about cinema with its tale of humans rebelling against sentient machines, which have conquered the world and imprisoned the minds of humanity within a computer simulation. Spawning two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, both released in 2003, The Matrix remains one of the all-time greatest landmarks of both action and sci-fi more than 20 years later.
Doubtlessly among its most enduring qualities was how much The Matrix succeeded in pulling the rug out from under its unsuspecting audience. The marketing sold it to moviegoers as an anime-inspired blend of wire-fu and superpowers, and yet millions of viewers were completely caught off-guard, in the best way possible, by how much it had to say about the very idea of reality itself. While The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions aren't regarded with the kind of esteem afforded to the original, each added their own X-factor into the mix to change the course of the series' story once more - so it should stand to reason that The Matrix 4 intends to carry that practice forward.
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At this point, little solid information is available on what audiences can expect from The Matrix 4, and with the film having been among the many to have its release plans impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, that will unfortunately remain the case until its new release window in 2022. Still, it's worth speculating about what The Matrix 4 could add to the series, and with the confirmed return of Neo and Trinity, rumors relating to Morpheus, and one popular fan theory, there's certainly a foundation to consider the possibility that everything that is already known about the Matrix could be turned upside-down by the fourth chapter in the series.
The Matrix 4 Is On A New Cycle
With so much of The Matrix 4 being kept under wraps, one of the few things that can be expected going in is that the Matrix itself has undergone a reboot. Per the explanation of The Architect in The Matrix Reloaded, there were five previous incarnations of The One before Neo, each emerging during a different iteration of the Matrix. That alone would be enough to point to a rebooted Matrix in the fourth film as being possible, but the ending of The Matrix Revolutions makes this even more explicit.
After Neo allows himself to be taken over by Agent Smith in the movie's climactic battle, Smith is deleted from the Matrix entirely. Meanwhile, the system itself reboots right before the audience's eyes, going from the apocalyptic hellscape Smith had transformed it into back to an approximation of the real world before the war began between humanity and the machines. This could also point to Neo's return in The Matrix 4 amounting to the seventh version of The One within the seventh version of the Matrix. However, the real twist could come in exactly what the system itself was designed for.
The Matrix 4 Could Return To The Original Premise
As Morpheus explained to Neo in the first movie, the Matrix was created after the war as a tool to keep the surviving humans under control. However, many have called into question the notion of humans as an efficient energy source for the kind of energy demands the machines would require. One fan theory has factored this in, and offers a different way of looking of what the machines may actually be using humans for.
This theory proposes that humans are utilized by the machines not as an energy source but instead as an organic type of U. Seeing the technical efficiency of the human mind, the machines created the Matrix as a way to expand their own technical powers. Incidentally, the idea of humans being used as a U for the machines was part of the original script of The Matrix anyway, and if this were to be re-incorporated into The Matrix 4, the movie could re-invent the motivation of the machines in capturing and recycling the humans they had defeated in the war. Furthermore, the return of Neo and Trinity, along with rumors of a young Morpheus appearing in the movie, also present a few curve-balls that may come in The Matrix 4.
How Trinity & Morpheus Exist In The New Matrix Cycle
Despite both Neo and Trinity having died in The Matrix Revolutions, both are confirmed to return in The Matrix 4. As to the specifics of their return, Neo's would be the easiest to facilitate through the continual reincarnation of The One. The greater challenge is presented in Trinity having died in the real world, while the death of Morpheus in The Matrix Online would appear to make the idea of his younger self harder to implement without significant flashbacks or even time-travel, but The The Matrix 4 could also work around this through the aforementioned system reboot at the end of The Matrix Revolutions.
Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus were all well-known within the system of the Matrix as human rebels who frequently hacked in to free human minds. If Neo returns as the latest version of The One, the newly rebooted Matrix could theoretically have found a way to include Trinity and Morpheus as A.I. programs based upon their old personalities, possibly even transformed into Agents of the Matrix to offer a really unexpected twist. The Matrix 4 could also go in the opposite direction and have them as sentient programs allied with the human rebels in the same vein as Seraph, with The Oracle's change of appearance in The Matrix Revolutions offering the perfect way to explain the new appearance of a younger Morpheus.
The Matrix was a watershed moment in sci-fi history back in 1999, and it's extremely doubtful that The Matrix 4 will be bringing the franchise back from a near two-decade absence from cinema screens without taking viewers on an even deeper dive down the rabbit hole that began that year. The concept of the machines using humans as a massive U rather than an energy source could be the perfect way to at once turn the premise of the series on its head while bringing it back to the initial concept, while the return of Neo and Trinity along with a young Morpheus can go in any number of different directions. One thing is for certain - the mind-warping premise of the franchise gives The Matrix 4 far more room to play by its own rules than the average franchise revival (which is why even the absence of Hugo Weaving isn't enough to completely discount a return by Agent Smith).
