We’ve already seen our first glimpse at the Merovingian, who’s clearly fallen on hard times since he last tormented our heroes during a deadly bondage rave inside the Matrix, and now a new trailer finally shows Smith back as Niobe. It’s not in the way you think, though. “It’s so easy to forget how much noise the Matrix pumps into your head. Something else makes the same kind of noise: war,” a much older Niobe tells a reawakened Neo in the video. Then the bullets start flying. This first look at Niobe is surprising, to say the least, and does have major implications for when this sequel takes place. While some fans have long theorized that this movie would be some kind of prequel or take place in a different version of the Matrix altogether, it’s clear that this a direct follow-up to the same timeline, but where many more decades have passed on Zion since Neo saved humanity in Revolutions. If 50 years have passed since the end of the trilogy, then this grayer Niobe would certainly look her age. But why haven’t the rest of the characters aged at the same pace? Besides her age, the new trailer doesn’t reveal much about Niobe’s role in the movie. Is she still a ship captain adventuring with Ghost (Anthony Wong) and Sparks (Lachy Hulme) on a rebuilt Logos? Or has she retired. It almost looks like she’s wearing the cozy attire of a Zion councillor, one of the elders that make up the governing body of the last human city. We’ll find out just what’s going on with Niobe, and how deep the rabbit hole really goes, when The Matrix Resurrections hits theaters and HBO Max on Dec. 22.
