Exclusive Matrix 4 Spoilers: The Sequel Goes Meta In The Most Shocking Ways

The Matrix 4 has a big job ahead. We've exclusively learned of meta details in the plot that will manage to surprise fans.

By Faith McKay | Updated

matrix 4

Every fan has been expecting and hoping that The Matrix 4 will shock them in ways that the original film did in 1999. Well, now that we’ve uncovered even more about the plot for the fourth installment in the franchise, it’s fair to say that “shocked” is an appropriate expectation. Thanks to one of our trusted and proven sources, Giant Freakin Robot has exclusively learned that the fourth movie takes meta film making to a new place.

We’ve discovered that in The Matrix 4, Keanu Reeves’s character (Thomas Anderson/Neo/The One) is a video game developer. In the movie’s world, The Matrix trilogy are video games. Now, in this movie, it will be years since the third video game released. Thomas Anderson is still working as a game developer but doesn’t want to make the fourth video game for the franchise. The company responsible for making the video games in the movie’s world will be called Warner Bros. The company will say that they are going to make a fourth Matrix video game with or without him. So, Thomas Anderson can either make the video game for the trilogy he originally created, or abandon it and watch other developers work on his vision.

This information is a lot and can take a moment to settle in. To be clear, yes. The Matrix 4 is going to have Thomas Anderson/Neo (Keanu Reeves’s character) as a video game developer. He will have made a trilogy of Matrix video games. Warner Bros, the same company that makes The Matrix films in the real world, will be the company responsible for the video games. They will be forcing him into making a fourth one, even though he doesn’t want to. And that’s what Thomas Anderson will be up to when we meet him in The Matrix 4.

the matrix 4 Keanu Reeves

This information leads to so many questions. We know that Lana Wachowski, one half of The Wachowskis who worked on the original trilogy, is the writer and director for The Matrix 4. We also know that the original Matrix movie was an allegory for experiences in her own life. Does that mean she didn’t want to make the fourth Matrix movie? Or is she basing this part of the film on her sister Lilly’s experience, since she didn’t want to make this movie? She did give her public approval for Lana to do so. Also, how did Warner Bros feel about being made into a bully for this movie? Forcing Thomas Anderson into making a new video game for their franchise, and implying that people didn’t want to make this fourth movie in real life?

Now that Warners Bros has merged with Discovery, will they update the scenes in Matrix 4 to say Warner Bros Discovery instead? Probably not, but who would have guessed that Neo, The One, would be talking about his job at Warner in the first place?

matrix neo trinity

In the original movie, we first met Thomas Anderson as he was walking around The Matrix, unaware that a “matrix” existed. He was a hacker. A video game developer for Matrix 4 makes sense, as much as anything else does, but these meta elements are definitely going to be a surprise for audiences.

Is this going too far? How far are writers allowed to take meta elements with an audience before they roll their eyes? We’ll have to keep in mind that written out blatantly on paper, a lot of ideas sound strange. Explaining what the original Matrix film was about was never an easy thing to do. Fortunately, Warner Bros created a brilliant marketing campaign the first time around, simply saying, “What is The Matrix?” and managing to make us curious. Attempting to explain that movie would have confused audiences, much in the way that explaining The Matrix 4 now is a little overwhelming. For now, all Matrix fans can do is speculate on how this will be executed in the movie and wait to see how it plays on screen when it releases on December 22, 2021.