In a surprising move, Netflix has announced that Keanu Reeves’ fourth Matrix film, The Matrix Resurrections, will begin streaming on May 1st. This comes right on the heels of Warner Bros. revealing that a fifth Matrix film is in the works, with a new director taking the helm. The Matrix 5 will not be directed by Lana or Lilly Wachowski, but by Drew Goddard, known for his work on films like The Martian and Cloverfield.
Lana Wachowski, who directed The Matrix Resurrections, will serve as an executive producer on the fifth film. The return of Reeves as Neo in the fifth installment has not been confirmed yet. The Matrix Resurrections was released in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously in December 2021, due to the pandemic. However, the film did not perform very well at the box office, earning $159.1 million against a $190 million production budget.
Despite its lackluster box office performance, The Matrix Resurrections was received fairly positively by both critics and audiences, scoring a 63% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film follows Neo, who discovers he is actually Thomas Anderson, a game designer who created a trilogy of video games based on The Matrix. As Anderson begins to question reality and faces the decision of taking the red pill to free his mind once again, the story unfolds with the return of Trinity and the introduction of a new Morpheus.
While the first Matrix film remains the top earner in the franchise with $465.9 million worldwide, The Matrix Resurrections fell short with a global gross of $159.1 million. The film is currently available for digital rental on various platforms, and can also be streamed on Prime Video’s Freevee platform for free, albeit with interruptions from commercials. Fans eagerly anticipating the arrival of The Matrix Resurrections on Netflix now have a set date, May 1st, to catch the latest in the iconic franchise.
