The last two promos for The Matrix Resurrections have been quite telling, but none more so than the trailer that dropped this morning. Jonathan Groff’s character in The Matrix Resurrections is confirmed at this point to be playing the iconic Agent Smith, after scheduling conflicts prevented him from being a part of the film. We’ve known this for some time, but this put the icing on the cake.
As if speculation weren’t enough, we see Groff facing a window, as Weaving did in the original, with this dialogue overlapped from the two actors (or maybe it’s Groff alone; it’s so hard to tell): “Billions of people just living out their lives, oblivious.” The one line here that is Groff is “Oblivious.” Either way, with his delivery, he sounds very Smith-esque and while we were skeptical with regards to his casting Neo’s arch-nemesis, it appears to have been a fantastic choice.
With The Matrix Resurrections only 16 days away, the hype train is officially on track. It may not perform on the level of Spider-Man: No Way Home, that’s okay, especially considering it’s a rated R film. 21 years ago The Matrix revolutionized both filmmaking and storytelling. Can it do it again? That’s a tough question to answer, but it has the potential to.
Jonathan Groff stars in The Matrix Resurrections alongside Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateeen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas.