Anna Daniels
Amid our current cinematic ecosystem of perpetual prequels, sequels, and spin-offs, fans have gotten quite familiar with the various ways studio franchises reset themselves to allow for more movies. So familiar, in fact, that many see things like retconning as unimaginative and lazy. While our intrepid Redditor’s theories don’t completely shirk tropes, they do offer a believable and compelling way for Reeves and Moss to return. Most importantly, they do it by asking audiences to build on previously established canon, instead of ignoring it.
The Matrix Revolutions reveals that this isn’t the first time Neo has tried to save the human race. In fact, he’s the sixth incarnation of the One to appear, with five others attempting to bring down the Matrix’s other stable versions. Knowing that the Matrix can reboot — and that the One continuously comes back, as evidenced by the Architect’s TV screens — the Redditor proposes that a retcon of Trinity and Neo’s deaths is not necessary. The fourth film only needs to lean into its digital universe and cyclical timeline.
Instead of creating new people every time it begins again, the theory speculates that the Matrix just reproduces the same group of people it initially enslaved, physically and digitally. This opens the door for a story focusing on an older Neo and Trinity who are among those alive prior to the First Machine War, but aren’t necessarily the people we already now. A story about the “original” human versions of both characters could account for them not only being alive and having aged, but could also lay the groundwork for the first Matrix film. This pre-Neo and Trinity may get close to stopping the machines, but they’ll ultimately fail, and it will be the job of a future (digitally and physically cloned) Neo to end the wars.
Written by: Looper
