Looking at how rapidly he’s been climbing the Hollywood ranks over the last few years, you’d have thought that being starstruck was a thing of the past for Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Having broken out with an Emmy-winning turn in Watchmen, the 35-year-old has a slew of exciting projects in various stages of production or development.
Candyman hits theaters today, he’s currently shooting DCEU sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, wrapped Michael Bay’s Ambulance earlier this year, boarded George Miller’s prequel Mad Max: Furiosa and signed on to headline the high concept Emergency Contact with Dwayne Johnson producing, but Abdul-Mateen II admitted he was like a little kid when he saw Keanu Reeves on the set of The Matrix: Resurrections.
Having resided near the top of the A-list for 30 years and starred in several of the greatest action movies of the modern era, it’s good to know that his peers and contemporaries are just as awed by the incredibly popular and even more wholesome actor as us mere mortals, with Abdul-Mateen II revealing he was instantly hit by the momentousness of what he was doing.
“I remember Keanu and his first line. I looked up, and there was Keanu, and I said, ‘Oh sh*t, I’m really in The Matrix‘. It was just Keanu in that voice. And the technology that Lana incorporated and the filmmaking, camera rigs that I’ve never seen before. It’s so ambitious. It was really interesting to be making The Matrix 4 at a time when the world was so warped and when reality was so distorted. It could creep in a little bit if you let it.”
Now that the fourth installment in the sci-fi franchise has settled on an official title, albeit the exact same one that leaked months ago, The Matrix: Resurrections is gearing up to kick its marketing campaign into high gear. The first footage has already screened for CinemaCon attendees, and with Lana Wachowski’s latest chapter coming to theaters and HBO Max on December 22nd, it’s almost time to start building up the hype.