Why Laurence Fishburne Didn’t Return As Morpheus In The Matrix Resurrections

When the first two sequels to the Wachowskis’ “The Matrix,” titled “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions,” both released in theaters in 2003, it set a strange precedent for Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. Certain 2000s-era hits, rather than getting a single expected sequel, were granted a gigantic, outsize, super-sequel finale that was released in two parts. In addition to “The Matrix,” major studios also took a “mega-sequel finale” approach to “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Harry Potter,” “Twilight,” and “The Hunger Games.” Indeed, “Mission: Impossible” has since done the same thing with “Dead Reckoning” and “The Final Reckoning.” Heck, even Marvel Studios made an “Avengers” mega-sequel-finale with “Infinity War” and “Endgame.”

Advertisement

“The Matrix,” however, also proved that the mega-sequel approach doesn’t always work well. While “Reloaded” and “Revolutions” were hugely ambitious and exciting hits, they were also overstuffed, clunky, and wrestled with too many ideas (some good, some bad). The mythology also became far too complicated for its own good. Part of the third film’s climax even involved an army of wicked mechanical octopodes invading a subterranean human stronghold, with Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) racing in an armed hovercraft to help fight them off alongside an army of other human rebels. He was one of the few characters to survive the battle but one of many, many individuals to keep track of in that movie.

Morpheus, however, was killed off in “The Matrix Online,” a video game that was released in 2005 and continued the story of the films. It seems that a mysterious masked figure called The Assassin gunned Morpheus down in an alleyway. This is the main reason why Fishburne didn’t appear in Lana Wachowski’s late-stage 2021 sequel “The Matrix Resurrections.” If Morpheus was dead, then Fishburne wouldn’t be needed, right?

Advertisement

Weirdly, through some sci-fi conceits, the character returned for “Resurrections” anyway, albeit in an altered state, as now played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. During an appearance on “The View” (as covered by Entertainment Weekly), Fishburne revealed that he actually offered his services to the makers of “Resurrections,” but that they, surprisingly, turned him down.