They don't have Lawrence Fishburne listed in the cast. I know some people are speculating that they've re-cast Morpheus, but that wouldn't feel good to me (especially with Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne Moss returning).
It's never a good sign when the full cast can't be convinced to jump on-board (Rachel Weiss with The Mummy franchise, for instance).
Without a good excuse for Morpheus' absence, it would be extremely difficult to enjoy the film without him. He's integral to the Matrix franchise and you can't just gloss over why he's not there.
shareyea, amidst the current political climate (albeit mostly supported by stupid white folks) I'm surprised the estrogen rockettes cut the main black guy out.
shareThey also made Cloud Atlas, which uses race-swapping makeup all over the place...
I happen to like Cloud Atlas, but I'm surprised the woke crowd isn't more pissy about it.
I actually skipped that movie. I remember, when I still gave a crap about that, the reviews score being low. I also had no idea it was made by them
might give it a watch. I like hanks and berry
I also would like to add: I'm so happy moviechat exists. f@#$ amazon/imdb
Give it a viewing. I found it cerebral and engaging. I'd be interested to read the book some time.
One of my all-time best online chats was a deep dive into CA's "rebirth cycle" stuff. If I can find the link, I'll post it up.
I'm so happy about moviechat. I was super angry at IMDb for canning the message boards (I continue to blame the crazies on the Ghostbusters (remake) message board). When they said they wanted people to engage with them on social media, I immediately unfollowed/unsubscribed/unliked every one of their social media pages.
Well done!
shareYeah. I'm sure IMDb doesn't even notice my absence, but I'm not going to support them in bulldozing the best part of the site - especially when I can get all my movie needs fulfilled through wikipedia and sites like this one.
shareYeah, they suck. Keep filling this site with content my friend. We need to encourage people to reply to maintain this MovieChat thing going on!
shareI'm on here every day! Moviechat can have all the hits from me they want! Long live the message board kingdoms of movie nerds! Long live speech!
shareI never even heard about cloud atlas until rick and morty. I didnt even know it was a real movie lol
shareThere was actually a lot of people upset that Benedict Cumberbatch was Asian for part of it.
shareI remember a few, but not many. Maybe there were; maybe it just seems like a blip compared to the brou-ha-ha that would have been raised these days.
I think it's one of the only movies where race-swap makeup works because it (a) highlights the soul migration and (b) was applied universally. For "a", my point is that it was integral to the story itself, not just something they did because they wanted a white guy as the lead. As to "b", it's an ensemble cast, most of the actors get times to shine and focus during one or the other stories, so they aren't using the race swapping to give the best parts to white people or something like that. Everybody gets a "turn" to be the lead (or, a lot of them, anyway) and so everybody gets race-swapped at some point. Once everybody is swapped around, it would be more weird if that option was not available for the white cast members.
sure they can, and they will
shareThat may be true, but without a darn good explanation, it's one chink in the armour that they could have easily patched up. Why bother when you could just hire Fishburne and be done with it?
sharemy theory is they don't like something he said or did in the past
shareThat's an interesting theory. Maybe he just said something critical of a Warner Bros. exec. I wonder if he did something that was or was perceived as "transphobic" (or whatever watered-down version of that allows for a trip-wire for the non-woke)...?
Then again, it could be that he just doesn't have time or doesn't think the project is a good idea (which...it does sound a little desperate, and honestly only the first Matrix was a mind-blower, the other two were just "meh")
It's also possible that Lily (Lana? which Wachowski is it?) came up with a story which she couldn't fit Morpheus into logically. Hard to imagine, but it is possible.
i also wonder if it was a trans phobic thing, no proof though, just guessing
shareNormally, I'd invoke Occam's Razor and guess that they just didn't come up with a story that organically involved Morpheus. But I think Neo and Trinity are back, and if anything it'd be easier to integrate Morpheus into a sequel than either of them (unless we're going to a SERIOUSLY trippy place). I can't imagine they ran out of budget money (they'll spend $150 mil on this, easy) or that Fishburne asked for too much cash (he hasn't been cranking out a-list films in the last decade). Reeves is pretty popular right now, but he seems like a decent dude; he probably wouldn't want to eat up all the money at the expense of Lawrence.
So, exhausting those two options (story and budget), we're left to conclude that he had a falling out with somebody, or somebody perceived a falling out. Given the sensitivity around trans stuff these days, yeah...maybe O's R. actually suggests that something happened along those lines.
What's really vexing is that the producers seemed to have found room for Jada Pinkett Smith, but not Morpheus.
Hey! if anyone here can confirm what happened with Fishburne, please reply to this! We need to know!
shareMaybe they are still working out a contract with him and don't have him listed because it hasn't been inked yet. Let us hope that is the case as it is hard to conceive of the Matrix universe without Morpheus.
shareI read an interview where Fishburne said he hadn't been asked. Of course, it's possible that he has to say that because otherwise the negotiations will break down. It's also possible that they want Morpheus to come in as a plot twist and they're keeping Fishburne's involvement as quiet as possible.
shareI thought the guy from the Watchmen was playing young Morpheus?
shareIf so, it's news to me. I don't recall that being available information when I was last talking about this subject, but maybe I just didn't see it.
shareIt might not be confirmed, but it's been a rumor for about a year: https://screenrant.com/matrix-4-cast-morpheus-rumors-yahya-abdul-mateen/
shareIt must have been weird for the stars to not see the other director.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/matrix-4-lilly-wachowski-b1908974.html
Yeah, that feels strange, just knowing that of the two creators of the original, there's only one who's back. It's not a great vote of confidence for a project that already feels a little "iffy". It's strange to drop a series for this long and then return.
I must confess, while I hope The Matrix: Resurrection is great, I have my doubts. It's a franchise that's been long-time dead (apropos of the title, I suppose), and only one out of the three was a great film to begin with. I had similar feelings about Indiana Jones.
I suppose it could be worse. It's not like the movie's plot concerns a computer virus that is reflective of what's going on around us.
I already had my reservations when I found out that Yuen Woo-Ping was not going to return to choreograph, but it remains to be seen how innovative this sequel will be. How will the effects be ground-breaking like the original?
My big hope is that, since it is kind of a random decision, it might be motivated out of something that Lili (Lana? I can't remember which Wachowski is spearheading it) really, really feels she needs to do. Of course, the big fear is that she feels out of ideas and projects and is just returning to "safe" ground - the biggest success of her career.
As to effects, I hope that the production team doesn't feel the need to top themselves. I think that hurt the sequels. Instead of telling the best story, they just thought, "How do we top the first one?" and came up with stuff like the Burly Brawl. If they don't do anything revolutionary - technology-wise - but tell a great story, then I'm happy.