The Matrix Resurrections was always going to struggle to bring back all of the cast members they wanted, due to the huge time gap since the original trilogy came to a conclusion in 2003. While Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Jada Pinkett Smith have all reprised their roles, others such as Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving were recast with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Jonathan Groff, respectively. While Fishburne’s Morpheus recasting was always the plan, it seems that there was a point when Hugo Weaving was almost brought back as Agent Smith.
In an interview with io9, co-writer Aleksander Hemon explained how the idea of someone else taking over the role of Agent Smith was not always on the cards. He said:
“A new Morpheus was there from the beginning. During my brief career in the movies, I’ve learned that moviemaking, it’s a world of contingency. And so people might or might not, you know, sign on-or if they sign on, some things may change. So we did write some roles, I’m not going to give it away, but we wrote a character for someone we thought would play [it] and then it was not possible. And so still, we didn’t change anything radically, but we were just imagining this actor in the role. And then it turned out that it was not possible, but we didn’t change any lines with that. So that actor is still inscribed in the role.
“There were preliminary talks (with Weaving) and so we were not involved in them with people, but it was not entirely resolved,” Hemon said. “Because the premise of The Matrix and (this) movie is somewhat different, Agent Smith would have been different in some ways, no matter who played it. And Jonathan Groff is amazing in that role. He added a dimension that I could not foresee while we were writing. But there’s an increased emotional emotionality in the movie and then he fits into that pattern.”
While Weaving does appear in The Matrix Resurrections in flashbacks and other visual callbacks throughout the movie, many fans were disappointed that some kind of arrangement for him to fully reprise the role wasn’t made. However, The Matrix isn’t the first movie franchise that Weaving has declined a return in after he failed to reprise his role as Red Skull in Avengers: Endgame, the character he played in Captain America.
The Matrix Resurrections has very much continued where the previous movies left off almost two decades ago, with very mixed reviews from both critics and audiences leaving the possibility of any further installments on shaky ground. While there are no doubt many Matrix fans out there who would happily be given the option of the red or blue pill again, Keanu Reeves himself has suggested that he wouldn’t expect to return again, and in the end without Reeves involvement it is unlikely that anyone would have any interest in returning to the Matrix again. For now, it is best to make the most of The Matrix Resurrections which is now in cinemas and streaming on HBO Max.
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