Nearly two decades after the third installment in “The Matrix” franchise premiered in 2003, co-stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are thrilled to step back into their characters. Both Neo and Trinity are back for this year’s highly anticipated movie, “The Matrix Resurrections,” with both co-stars reuniting after over 20 years of friendship.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Moss, 54, said the connection between her and Reeves is effortless. She described their relationship in the interview, explaining, "We've been through this experience together as partners. The only way I can describe it is like a soul friendship.”
That same connection has been undeniable on screens for decades, as their characters’ love story played out in the original films. Even in the franchises fourth part, there is a focus on heart.
"Not that it needed it, but certainly the depth of why this film got made is the sense of it being a love story between Trinity and Neo,” Reeves, 57, explained.
Moss said that for her, this new film was an unusual “opportunity to embody” director Lana Wachowski’s love, especially for Trinity, explaining, "I've never felt that way before, where I could see that I am an extension of her heart in playing this role.”
"When I read the script for this movie I cried, because the idea of watching these two iconic actors in these two iconic parts coming back and fighting to have their love again just wrecked me,” Jonathan Groff, who will portray Matt Hinges in the film, said.
When speaking with TODAY in September of this year about his new comic book series “BRZRKR,” Reeves called the franchise’s new installment “astounding.”
“It’s a beautiful film. It’s a love story, it’s action, and it’s full of ideas. It’s a ‘Matrix’ film,” he explained.”It was really something special for me personally and creatively to be involved. There’s a lot of beautiful images and cinema and food for thought, but it’s a ‘Matrix’ film so it’s kind of confronting who we are and what’s going on.”
For fans of the original three movies, it may seem strange to see Reeves and Moss back on screen, considering–spoiler alert!–both of their characters died at the end of the third installment. That small detail is certainly something that both actors took into account when they considered reviving (quite literally) their characters.
“When myself, Lana, Keanu and a few others sat together to read it for the first time, I was thinking: ‘What is this going to be like? How is she going to do this?’” Moss told The Guardian in an interview. “It’s something that I never imagined, and I was really blown away.”
Reeves revealed during a recent appearance on “The Graham Norton Show” that he was also confused on how his character was going to return after the last film. When asked by the show’s host how he was even going to be in the movie if his character died, Reeves hilariously replied, "I had the same question."
"I was at home and I got a text from Lana Wachowski, the director and writer, and she was like ‘What do you think about doing another ‘Matrix’ film?’" he recalled. "And I went ‘What?! That sounds amazing, but I’m dead.’ And then she was like, ‘Are you?’ And I went ‘Do tell.’”