New ‘Matrix’ Prequel To Possibly Star Michael B. Jordan as Morpheus, ‘According to Movieweb’

For a few years now, there have been talks of reviving one of the best motion picture franchises of all-time, The Matrix. According to Movieweb, Warner Bros. hired writer Zak Penn for a possible Matrix 4. When news broke, fans were in an outrage that the studio would try to tarnish the reputation of the previous Matrix films with a reboot. However, Penn would reply that he has no plans on that, that his version will be an extension. One of the issues was they didn’t have any lead characters, but that may have changed after the success of Black Panther. It’s rumored that Michael B. Jordan could play a young Morpheus if the movie is given a go.

Penn still hasn’t decided in which direction he wants to go in. While promoting his new film Ready Player One, Penn said the following.

“I’ve been working on Matrix right now. Which is in…a phase right now. That’s a franchise I desperately want to see brought back and, I can’t go in to too much detail, but I’ve been harassing Warner Bros. for years to try to get it going again so that’s one thing I’m working on and I’ve been working on a bunch of other things too. I will fight people who don’t under…look, I think OASIS (the interconnected virtual space in Ready Player One) is similar, both the Matrix and OASIS are similar in that they are brilliant ideas for universes. And they are not, you know, when it came out about Matrix, people were like ‘Oh no, there going to reboot Matrix I was like, Why, I’m not insane. I mean, The Matrix is still one of my favorite…they’d re-release The Matrix and people would go see it.”

Remaking a movie like the Matrix may not be a smart idea and Penn understands that. Warner Bros. can go the same route in which Star Wars has done over the years and do a prequel. From the moment Morpheus called Neo and offered him the red or blue pill, fans wanted to know where he came from. How did he become Morpheus and so on? It’s been mentioned that the original cast may not appear in the next series of films, so casting would be of the utmost importance. This is where a big name like Michael B. Jordan will come in handy.

After his success in Black Panther, is there really a hotter name in the African-American community to play Morpheus?

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Think about the weight his name carries now. Jordan is still hot from his Killmonger character in Black Panther, then you add in his soon-to-be performance in Creed 2 and Warner Bros. has their new Morpheus. Now, the identities of the other characters are still up in the air, but Penn was wise to try to snag Jordan as one of his leads.

A prequel to the Matrix is the only way to go. It’s the same as Star Wars did after the Luke Skywalker saga was over when they decided to go back and retrace how Darth Vader came to be. Penn was brought on last year to write a treatment for the movie but as of now, there are no directors attached to the film.