Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Officially Boards ‘Matrix 4’ Cast in Lead Role

It was a tough choice to make, but director Lana Wachowski has found the third actor to join Keanu Reeves’ Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity in The Matrix 4, the most anticipated follow up to the epic sci-fi trilogy. Aquaman‘s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II officially lands a lead role in the upcoming film.

According to Variety, Wachowski met with a couple of actors and ultimately zeroed in on Abdul-Mateen II to complete the lead cast. The Matrix 4 was announced in August, with Reeves and Moss confirmed to reprise their roles. However, the return of Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus was seemingly left in limbo. Sources of the outlet said that Wachowski wanted to cast a younger actor for the role, but Abdul-Mateen II’s casting says otherwise.

Sources familiar with the project say that the actor’s Matrix 4 casting doesn’t exactly reveal that he will be playing a younger Morpheus, adding that it would be “inaccurate” to say so. Despite that, other insiders also say that although Abdul-Mateen II isn’t confirmed for Morpheus, he could still be playing a key role connected to the character in the form of an immediate family member of some sort. For now, details on the actor’s exact lead role is tightly kept under wraps.

The first three Matrix movies—The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions—spawned a decent fan following with its unique take on alternate realities and inter-dimensional concepts. The Matrix trilogy has a collective global gross of $1.6 billion, making it one of the most successful movie franchises in the last 20 years. The movie portrays a futuristic dystopian society that’s unknowingly trapped inside an AI-made simulation in an effort to siphon human energy as their source of life. Neo, a gifted hacker, discovers a glitch that points to the simulation and is driven to spark a rebellion against the machines responsible for throwing humanity and reality in disarray.

The Matrix 4 comes from a script written by Wachowski, alongside Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell. The film is expected to begin production in early 2020.