More than 25 years removed from The Matrix’s debut in 1999, it’s hard to put into perspective just how big of a moment it was. Sure, the constant spoofs sort of diminished how insane the SFX were, but it still felt like the perfect movie to usher in the next millennium. So what is its legacy now? Well, according to one of its stars, it had a hand in the foundation of the single highest-grossing movie franchise ever.
Laurence Fishburne — who played Morpheus — recently appeared at a New York Comic Con panel celebrating the landmark movie. It was here that Fishburne took his stance: “There’s no movie that comes after ‘The Matrix’ that’s a sci-fi action or fantasy movie that’s not been influenced by it. It’s everywhere. It’s so pervasive you almost forget where it came from at this point. Now, people don’t realize, but no ‘The Matrix,’ no MCU. It [just] doesn’t look the same.”
That might seem like a bit of patting one’s own back, but Fishburne might have a genuine point in how The Matrix influenced the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We think about how both explored our perception of reality and time, the conflicts of being the chosen one, the themes of control and freedom, etc. (Hell, we’re still analyzing the movie to this day!) Sure, none of these were especially unique to The Matrix back in 1999 but presenting them to the masses on such a scale was a watershed moment that can still be found today in a way that may not have been possible without it – it’s just now under capes, not dusters…
While Fishburne has dipped into the MCU by playing Dr. Bill Foster in Ant-Man and the Wasp (as well as voicing him in Moon Girl and the Devil Dinosaur and What If…?), it seems as if his Matrix days are probably over. As he also stated at the con (via Variety), “It depends on how good it is, really. If it’s great, then yeah, if it makes sense. I don’t know if it makes sense. I reached out. It just didn’t pan out. I said ‘Thank you very much,’ And Lana [Wachowski] said, ‘Thank you very much, I’ll think about it,’ and that was that.”
What do you think the ultimate legacy of The Matrix is? Did it play a role in properties such as Marvel?
