Be warned, some Matrix Resurrections SPOILERS to follow.

Hamilton star Jonathan Groff will soon enter the Matrix as a rebooted version of a familiar villainous face in upcoming sequel The Matrix Resurrections. While speaking with Games Radar, the actor teased his take on the digital bad guy, explaining that his process was to let director Lana Wachowski take control and simply put his trust in the filmmaker’s vision.

"[Director] Lana [Washowski] was interested in the new programming of certain characters. And so, as far as giving nods or winks or references to things that had happened previously, I allowed her to drive the car and would be ready and willing to do anything she asked for at any moment. So, the process for me was making something my own and trusting her to mold and shift it as it went along.”

The recent trailers have confirmed what many had suspected about Jonathan Groff’s role in The Matrix Resurrections. As many had theorized, the Mindhunter star will bring Agent Smith back to life, no doubt with several twists and turns along the way, as he once again takes the fight directly to Keanu Reeves’ chosen one, Neo. Groff went on to provide a little more insight into Lana Wachowski’s process, revealing that quite often there would be an element of spontaneity alongside the other meticulously planned elements.

"It was such a thrilling process. Lana used to really into everything being exact and pre-planned. She about 20 years ago and it was like a comic book. And this was very in the moment, you come to set ready for it to go any which way. The articulation of the choices being made by the character was a combination of what was written on the page and what had been planned. If it was a fight, then there was fight choreography, and then the magic of things sparking in the moment. She would sometimes say, like, 'Go over here, no, actually go over here!' She was thinking a lot on the spot. And it was a real thrill ride, the whole thing."

Some of the recent footage has already teased Jonathan Groff’s efforts in emulating Hugo Weaving’s distinctive, gloriously hammy performance as Agent Smith, with the actor even saying one of the villain’s most famous catchphrases. “I spent so much time watching him, and looking at clips of him, there’s a YouTube [clip] of him saying ‘Mr Anderson’, every time he says it, that I watched repeatedly. Just cuts of him saying ‘Mr Anderson’,” Groff said previously regarding his research process.

The first reactions to The Matrix Resurrections have now emerged, and range from being described as “STELLAR” in its “Weird, romantic, *extremely.* meta” revival of the franchise, to being called an “exposition dump” that sadly “pales in comparison.” Produced, co-written, and directed by Lana Wachowski, The Matrix Resurrections is led by a returning Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, and is scheduled to be released by Warner Bros. Pictures theatrically on December 22, 2021. The movie will also stream digitally on HBO Max in the United States for a month beginning on that same date.