After much speculation, it was announced in August that a fourth movie in the Matrix series is happening, with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss set to return to their roles of The Matrix 4. It has now been announced that Aquaman star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has also joined the cast.
As reported by Variety, Abdul-Mateen II will play a major role in the movie. The site states that he was one of several actors that met with director Lana Wachowski over the past week. Abdul-Mateen II played Black Manta in Aquaman, and also appeared in the horror hit Us and the latest season of Black Mirror.
The first reports of a new Matrix movie began in 2017, with Ready Player One’s Zak Penn writing the script. Penn said the movie would expand the Matrix universe and not reboot it, and Michael B. Jordan was in talks to star. There were conflicting reports that the relaunch had been cancelled in May this year, before it was officially confirmed in August. Although The Matrix 4 does not yet have a confirmed release date, it is expected to start shooting in early 2020.
The first Matrix movie brought in $463,517,383 worldwide, and it spawned two sequels: 2003’s Matrix Reloaded–grossing $742,128,461 worldwide–and Matrix Revolutions–taking in $427,343,298 worldwide. The franchise has earned more than $1.6 billion in total.
2019 marks the 20th anniversary of The Matrix, and while the first movie still holds up, the sequels–primarily Revolutions–are still as problematic as you remember. Check out The Matrix Sequels’ 34 Dumbest Moments to relive the weirdness.
