The official Twitter account for the upcoming The Matrix Resurrections has mocked Facebook following the company’s recently announced rebrand as Meta. The fourth Matrix film is set to reintroduce audiences to the sci-fi future of the Matrix, a fake simulation of the world run by evil sentient AI, in which messianic hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) fights against the machines. Original director Lana Wachowski returns to the franchise, which last hit screens in 2003 with the final part of the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions. Alongside Wachowski, original cast members Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Ann Moss, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Daniel Bernhardt will return to the series, with new faces including Aquaman’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Morpheus.
Yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social media giant would be changing its name to Meta, in an effort to unite its various platforms under one umbrella. Additionally, Zuckerberg announced plans for a virtual reality world called the Metaverse, which he sees as the future of the internet. In test animations, Zuckerberg explored his plans for a shared virtual world where people interact with one another online, stretching the distinction between social media and reality. The metaverse name comes from 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash, and Zuckerberg plans for the concept to become part of everyday life within a decade.
In a new Tweet parodying their own theatrical poster, The Matrix Resurrections poked fun at the news. The film reposted its recent promo poster featuring the Matrix movies’ iconic red and blue pills, which have been adopted by fans as a symbol of choosing oppression or anarchy in the face of evil control. Originally, the poster featured the film’s tagline “The Choice Is Yours,” but the new parody version adds “Now, based on real events” alongside the hashtag “#Meta”, directly referencing the recent Facebook news. See the original post below:
Click here to view the original Twitter post
The post directly calls out Facebook for its strange new plans. The company has been facing slews of criticism in recent years for its reported lack of online safety and allowance of hate-speech. The Matrix Resurrections post calls out the real-world anxieties of AI domination, privacy-invasion and simulation. Many fans of the original Matrix film trilogy engaged in theories and philosophies about whether life as we know it could really be a machine-based simulation, and the recent news has only added to the discussion.
Debates about the morality of a fully-simulated world are the subject of innumerable sci-fi dystopias, including the original Matrix films and the book and movie Ready Player One. As soon as the Metaverse was announced, fans of the movies were already making comparisons between Facebook and the controlling machines. However, The Matrix Resurrections‘ engagement with the recent Facebook rebranding controversy comes as no surprise. The Matrix films are known for inventive marketing strategies, beginning with their early utilisation of the internet back in 1999, with the website ‘What Is The Matrix?” being an early example of online marketing. Indeed, the real life possibility of a VR reality in which human beings interact in lifelike ways only adds to the relevance and necessity for a new Matrix movie, and audiences can see more warnings of what may be to come when The Matrix Resurrections opens in theaters.
Source: The Matrix Resurrections/Twitter
Key Release Dates
- The Matrix Resurrections (2021)Release date: Dec 22, 2021
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