The mystery surrounding The Matrix Resurrections grows deeper, with the newest teaser revealing our first look at Jada Pinkett Smith’s return as freedom fighter and captain of the Logos, Niobe. As well as offering another glimpse at all the punching, kicking, and bullet-stopping, typically involved in an adventure set within The Matrix, the latest announcement confirms that a new trailer and more announcements are expected to land tomorrow, with the new footage continuing to pull back the veil draped over the plot, and how Keanu Reeves’ Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity have returned...

"It's so easy to forget how much noise the Matrix pumps into your head," Pinkett Smith’s Niobe warns in the trailer. "Something else makes the same kind of noise: War." So, despite a truce being reached during the action-packed conclusion of 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions, it seems that the battle between man and machine has begun again, with the surviving humans no doubt once again looking to The One to save the day.

Introduced in The Matrix Reloaded, Niobe is an ally of Neo. Captain of a Zion hovercraft, the Logos, Niobe was once romantically involved with Morpheus, and while she does not completely agree with the idea of the prophecy, she does believe in Neo, helping The One whenever and wherever she can. Surviving the events of the previous trilogy, Niobe’s involvement in The Matrix Resurrections has been known for some time, with our first look at the character’s return revealing that she has been aged up considerably, which perhaps confirms prior rumors that the fourth installment will pick up some 60 years following the events of the previous movies.

Smith recently discussed what drew her to join the franchise in the first place, with the actress saying, “I remember getting the storyboards when they wanted Will to play Neo. I was going, "Man, this is really revolutionary. This is like Japanese anime [but in] live-action." It had never been done before. I'm a huge Japanese animation fan, so from then on, they had me. When they called me to play Niobe [for the 2003 sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions], I didn't have to read anything. I was in.”

The Matrix Resurrections will hope to continue this revolutionary approach to action sci-fi cinema, with writer David Mitchell, who co-wrote the script alongside director Lana Wachowski, recently teasing the lofty aspirations for the sequel. "I saw the film in Berlin in September. It's really good,” he said. “I cannot tell you what this film is about, but I could explain what it is not. It's certainly not yet one more sequel, but something autonomous that contains however the three Matrix that preceded in a really ingenious way. It's a very beautiful and weird creation. It also achieved a couple of things that we do not see in action films, meaning it subverts the rules of blockbusters."

Directed by Lana Wachowski and starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Christina Ricci, The Matrix Resurrections will have its world premiere on December 18, 2021, in San Francisco 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.