The Matrix Resurrections
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About
The Matrix Resurrections is the fourth installment in the Matrix movie franchise, set to be released on December 22nd, 2021. The film is directed and co-written by Lana Wachowski and sees Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss reprising their roles as Neo and Trinity from the original trilogy.
History
Announcement
A fourth Matrix film was announced by Warner Bros. Picture Group chairman Toby Emmerich on August 20th, 2019.[1] The announcement also stated that the film would be directed by Lana Wachowski, one of the two siblings who wrote and directed the original three films, and that the film would feature the return of Keanu Reeves as Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity.
Following the film's announcement, multiple notable discussions of the news were posted online. On the /r/movies subreddit, a post dedicated to the announcement gained over 109,000 upvotes within 17 hours.[2] On Twitter, multiple jokes related to the announcement were posted by users (examples shown below).[3][4]
Viral Marketing and Trailer
On September 7th, 2021, Whatisthematrix.com,[9] a website created to advertise The Matrix before its release in 1999, was updated for the first time in over two decades with the announcement that the first trailer for the film would be released on September 9th.[5] Before the trailer's release, the website featured red and blue pills, which would give two distinct teasers for the trailer when they were clicked on.[6] The full trailer (shown below) was released on September 9th, at 6 a.m. PDT. The trailer received over 6 million views within five hours of being posted.
Multiple jokes about the trailer and teaser website were widely shared online shortly after they were released. On September 9th, Twitter[7] user internethippo posted a photoshopped image from the trailer replacing Neo with Jar Jar Binks (seen below, left). The image received over 1,000 likes and 100 retweets in two hours. Meanwhile, so many people noticed that the new version of Neo resembled Keanu Reeves' previous character of John Wick that it became a trending topic on Twitter, which was mocked in a tweet (seen below, right) on September 7th by Twitter[8] user BudrykZack using the Getting A Lot Of X Vibes From This format. The tweet received over 1,400 likes and 200 retweets in two days.
Search Interest
External References
[1] Hollywood Reporter – 'Matrix 4' in the Works With Keanu Reeves and Lana Wachowski
[2] Reddit – ‘Matrix 4’ Officially a Go With Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Lana Wachowski
[3] Twitter – @stevendlg_
[4] Twitter – @anthonyjeselnik
[5] Mashable – Choose your 'The Matrix Resurrections' teaser trailer: Red, or blue?
[6] What Is The Matrix? – CHOOSE YOUR REALITY
[7] Twitter – @internethippo
[8] Twitter – @BurdykZack
[9] What Is The Matrix – Whatisthematrix.com,
Top Comments
Red123
Aug 21, 2019 at 09:31AM EDT
Griff the Hoplite
Sep 09, 2021 at 03:15PM EDT