The Matrix first enraptured fans with its release in 1999, then perplexed them with the follow-ups Matrix: Reloaded (2003) and Matrix: Revolutions (2003). While many criticized the additional endeavors, a great deal of enthusiasts found the Matrix trilogy an endearing and finally successful voyage into the oft-forgotten genres of cyberpunk and tech-noir.

With the disappointing fallout from The Matrix: Resurrections having prompted long-time Matrix fans to give up on the franchise, word is in the wind that a follow-up – tentatively called M-5 for now – is in the pre-production script revision stage. If and when will it happen? What would the plot look like? Let’s examine the knowns and unknowns vis-à-vis the fifth Matrix film!

The Failure of Matrix Resurrections
Warner Bros. Pictures

The Matrix: Resurrections (2021) was a failure. In an attempt by one of the two creators of the Matrix franchise to continue the series, fans were mystified by the displaced comedy, mortified by the change in Morpheus, and disconcerted by the Disney-esque ending. Scoring a measly 5.7 out of 10 on IMDb, the fourth film in a proposed trilogy, it makes sense that The Matrix: Resurrections felt out of place.

The problem with Resurrections was that it had been too long since the original trilogy, fans were expecting vastly more, and only one of the creative halves of the original team returned: Lana Wachowski. She attempted to enliven an entire universe created by her and her sibling almost 20 years after the fact, and it simply didn’t work. To make matters worse, the gender reassignment surgery endured by Lana (formerly Larry) led to the dispersal of many former yet closed-minded followers.

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If and When Will It Happen?
Warner Bros. Pictures

There will never be a Matrix 5! Are moviegoers so sure? The thing about Matrix: Resurrections blindsiding enthusiasts and sci-fi fans is the fact that it was so unexpected. With the first Matrix trilogy ending so specifically and so definitively, it’s not like viewers saw M4 coming – no one did! As of now, it’s logical to conclude that the studio may have been waiting to see how The Matrix: Resurrections was accepted, or rather if the new film would be a box office flop or not to wait to give the green light for The Matrix 5.

The fact is, a search for the word “Matrix 5” will produce a right-column result on the landing page. To the right of the standard search results, viewers will note a column that reads “Matrix 5” as a movie with Lana Wachowski listed as director, with Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Yahya Abdul-Maleen III as the stars. There is no year listed nor a production company, but this worldwide web slip-up proves that Warner Bros. has at least possibly initiated the first phase of a fifth Matrix film!

What Would the Plot Look Like?
Warner Bros.  

If fanatics choose to take the red pill and The Matrix indeed has plans for a quinology, what would that entail? Considering the central topic of the unfolding tale shifted its focus back to the one, Neo, but with a few additional intriguing developments connected to how and why Neo had yet again become entangled in The Matrix and where this could direct The Matrix 5.

Though the apparent answer could be that Neo endured the ordeal when he should have expired – it may not be that cut-and-dry. Indeed, Neo survived, but at the direction of the artificial intelligence that stitched Trinity and Neo back together. Wasn’t Neo extricated awfully easily by the ‘new’ machine Morpheus? Didn’t Morpheus appear quite differently from the original trilogy? How did Neo survive a quite different appearing Agent Smith shooting him in the head at Metacortex Industries? He just reappeared in the Therapist’s office – why? What if all of these clues lead to Matrix 5?

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What if everything up to this point had been a mere hallucination? What if Neo was inside a dream within a dream? A true mind-blowing concept would be that The Matrix: Resurrections never happened at all – it was merely an exercise in the machines’ new energy absorption trials! One could easily visualize the end of Resurrections, wherein Trinity and Neo fly off together, hand-in-hand, through an artificially beautiful skyline.

Perhaps none of it happened! Perhaps the Architect had created a new avatar for his insertion into the machine world, called the Therapist, to lead Neo into a new gerbil wheel for producing energy. This much had been admitted to within the context of the story itself, and as ludicrous as it may seem, Warner Bros. and the Wachowskis are perfectly willing and adept at producing mind-blowing fiction that no one could possibly have seen coming. To find out for certain, keep one digital simulacrum eye peeled for Matrix 5 posters and news.