Many words both positive and negative have been used to describe The Matrix franchise over the last 22 years; groundbreaking, game-changing, innovative, ponderous, self-serious, action-packed, pseudo-intellectual, tedious, spectacular and jaw-dropping being just a few, but ‘funny’ definitely isn’t one of them.
Sure, there are more than a few moments of mirth and humor to be derived from the situations Neo and the rest of his reality-bending associates find themselves in, but the sci-fi saga has hardly been renowned for having scripts peppered with zingers and witty exchanges of banter in between the weighty thematic discussions.
However, that could all be set to change according to The Matrix Resurrections‘ freshly-minted Morpheus, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who teased in a recent chat with GQ that the fourth installment will be notably funnier than its predecessors, admitting that the lighter moments in the first trailer were completely intentional, before adding that it was much different tonally.
Of course, audiences and HBO Max subscribers shouldn’t be going into The Matrix Resurrections expecting themselves to be left rolling in the aisles, but a little levity never hurt anybody, even in a property that’s always treated its own mythology with the deepest of respect of reverence to a fault.