There are a lot of people in the fourth Matrix. Even Christina Ricci’s in it! But while a good chunk of the old gang is getting back together, not all of them will be there. Laurence Fishburne, who played rebel leader Morpheus, not only won’t appear. He wasn’t even invited to the party. He’s talked about it before, and in a new interview about something he is in — namely the latest Liam Neeson thriller The Ice Road — he says he’s cool with people asking about it. He just doesn’t have a good answer.
In a new interview with Collider (in a bit picked up by IndieWire), the Oscar-nominated actor was asked about not getting to reunite with the likes of Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Lambert Wilson. Specifically he was asked if he didn’t mind people bugging him with that question.
“No, I completely understand that. That makes sense. It would make sense that people would ask me that, so it doesn’t get old,” Fishburne said, offering a good-natured chuckle. “I am not in the next Matrix movie, and you’d have to ask [director] Lana Wachowski why, because I don’t have an answer for that.”
In the past, as in an interview with Vulture late last summer, Fishburne said he was “fine” with not being asked back, while saying that maybe, with the free time, he’ll “write another play.” He then wished them well, adding, “I hope it’s great.”
Mind you, a lot of people from the original Matrix trilogy aren’t coming back. Hugo Weaving, aka fearsome Agent Smith, is AWOL, as is Monica Bellucci, Harold Perrineau, Harry Lennix, as well as philosopher/professor Cornel West, who semi-randomly popped up in Reloaded. In other words, he’s in august company.
The as-yet-untitled fourquel is set to be released on Dec. 16.