Few movies in 2021 were more polarizing than The Matrix Resurrections, as some longtime fans thought it was insulting, whereas others thought it was a triumphant victory. But most would agree that they'd still want to see a fifth movie.
A sequel seems unlikely because not only was the fourth film a box office bomb, but Lana Wachowski seemingly used a meta-joke in Resurrections to accuse Warner Bros. of forcing her to make the film. However, there's still so much of the universe that could be built on. A Matrix 5 could adapt the stories from other forms of media, expand upon intriguing moments in Resurrections, and answer questions that fans still have.
Growing Real Food In Io
Matrix Resurrections' main premise may have been full of plotholes, but everything surrounding it seemingly made for a more interesting narrative. One of those moments is when Niobe shows Neo how they have been able to create foods in Io that look and taste exactly like their Machine City counterparts.
As The Matrix takes place within a virtual reality, the taste of food and drink is essentially imaginary, so reproducing those tastes is one of the most fascinating prospects the new movie gives viewers. So far, they have only been able to perfect Strawberries, but it's a great jumping-off point and could lead to Io being full of strawberry fields and cherry trees.
Question The Inhumane Way Of Pulling People Out Of The Matrix
When it comes to waking up Trinity two-thirds of the way into Resurrections, there's an intriguing but brief philosophical debate over whether or not it's humane to pull her out of the Matrix without her consent. It's a brilliant philosophical wonderment, but it's all too short and the gang quickly decides to wake her up anyway.
If the movie would have followed further down that rabbit hole, it would have made for a more riveting movie than the final result. And as The Matrix is based on mind-blowing philosophical questions, this was Resurrections' chance to do it all again. However, it's still something that could be explored in a follow-up movie.
Agent Smith's Return
The Agent Smith that was depicted in Resurrections was basically the discount version, and it didn't exactly fill the giant-sized Hugo Weaving-shaped hole in fans' hearts. But just because Jonathan Groff's Agent Smith appears in the fourth movie doesn't mean Weaving couldn't return.
Movie franchises retcon their own timelines all the time, and given how meta Resurrections is, a fifth Matrix movie could make even more meta-jokes about Smith if Weaving did return. The gags almost write themselves.
Trinity And Neo Recreating The Matrix
Resurrections ends with Trinity and Neo, who both now can fly, posing in the sky above the Golden Gate Bridge. Before melting off his face several times over, the couple tells the Analyst that they intend to rebuild Machine City themselves. It almost sounds like the two want to play Grand Theft Auto or Sim City, and Machine City is one big sandbox for them to play around in.
They'd essentially be playing God, and that makes sense given all of the references to Neo being Jesus Christ throughout the series. Lana Wachowski could get so creative with this idea, and it'd be so much fun to watch Neo and Trinity rebuild the world together.
The Return Of Old Characters
The fourth movie did a good enough job of bringing back some of the old characters, such as Niobe and even the Merovingian. But there were a lot of characters that were sidelined too. The Oracle and many of the other classic characters were mysteriously absent.
And while the new version of Morpheus makes sense within the story, there still isn't really a proper explanation as to why Hugo Weaving's version of Agent Smith wasn't present. The original idea for Matrix 4 was even supposed to have The Kid in the lead role, so that abandoned idea could be brought back too.
Bugs' Search For Trinity
While the movie did a decent job of bringing back fan-favorite characters, it did an even better job of introducing new characters. Bugs has become an instant favorite character, regardless of the movie's quality, and it'd be a waste if she wasn't going to return in one form or another.
As her backstory wasn't entirely covered, the next Matrix movie could delve deeper into her search for Trinity and the catalyst behind it, flashing backward and forwards almost in a worst action scenes in the Matrix series, as the stunt performers' cables are still visible, so the sequel could rectify that.
Humans And Machines ing Forces
Another interesting turn of events in Resurrections is the way some of the machines are befriended by the humans, and they even work together in Io, as the machines help grow the strawberries.
There's always a possibility that the humans could forces with more machines and work together in the same kind of fashion that Droids work with humans in Star Wars. That could even lead to more philosophical debates, as machines may eventually become slaves to humans, just as the humans are used as batteries by the machines.
Following The Narrative Of The Matrix Online
There are so many avenues that Resurrections could have gone down, and there are tons of existing stories from other forms of media that the movie could have adapted. Of all of the comic books and great Matrix video games, the most narratively innovative is The Matrix Online.
The role-playing game is all about the death of Morpheus, and though there's a shrine for Laurence Fishburne's Morpheus in the movie, seeing what really happened to him in a future movie would be so satisfying. Not only that, but fans would get to see Fishburne in the role that he made iconic one more time.
Fill In The Gaps Between Revolutions And Resurrections
There was a huge 18-year gap between 2003's Matrix Revolutions and the newly released Resurrections, which is already long enough. But the gap in the actual universe is 60 years, and that's a lot of untold history and gaps in time that fans are missing out on. A movie exploring the whole timeline could confuse things even further, but it could be just as exciting too.
The movie could explore not only what happened to Morpheus, and not only Bugs trying to track down Trinity, but Niobe developing Io, and even the Analyst's take of Machine City. It could even be an Animatrix 2, an anthology of short movies based around different characters at different times in the Matrix world.
