“You take the blue pill, the story ends and you wake up in your bed believing whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
It appears Warner Bros. has chosen the red pill, because a new report claims the studio is exploring the idea of bringing The Matrix franchise back—with or without the Wachowskis.
The Hollywood Reporter says the studio is in very early discussions about a “relaunch” of the franchise, though it’s unclear what shape the project will take. Apparently, Michael B. Jordan is being considered to star, with a potential for the studio to explore a story surrounding a younger Morpheus.
That’s just one possibility. Warner Bros. is allegedly looking at the model being adopted by Disney and Lucasfilm regarding the Star Wars franchise, with side-stories and spinoffs of particular interest to the studio. Thus, Michael B. Jordan’s potential involvement.
The third Matrix film, The Matrix Revolutions, came out all the way back in 2003, long before Hollywood became overly obsessed with creating shared universes and spinoffs. The Hollywood Reporter says The Matrix was long considered sacrosanct among Warner Bros. executives, but they now apparently see its potential to become a larger franchise.
Could Reeves return?
Keanu Reeves, who played Neo, expressed interest in returning to the franchise, but only if the Wachowski’s were involved.
“They would have to write it and direct it,” Reeves said in an interview while promoting John Wick: Chapter 2. “And then we’d see what the story is, but yeah, I dunno, that’d be weird, but why not?”
The Matrix was ahead of its time when it was released back in 1999, and it still holds up to this day. There’s certainly potential if Warner Bros. were to reboot the franchise, though I’m not so sure a young Morpheus movie is the right way to go about it.