Last week, entertainment websites began speculating what The Matrix reboot by Warner Bros is all about. Without The Wachowskis’ involvement in this project, many are wondering if this will be received well by the fans of the movie franchise. But perhaps for Warner Bros, it is about being able to have a project similar to what Disney has done to the Star Wars franchise, create a galaxy of films that either are spin-offs of the Star Wars main story or the continuation of the galactic saga that has captured the imagination of generations since it was first released in the late 1970s.

It was mentioned in the reports last week that Michael B. Jordan might be the lead actor for the Matrix reboot though it is said to be not really a reboot, but an expansion of The Matrix franchise as reported by Scott Wrampler at the Birth.Movies.Death website. According to his sources, the supposedly new The Matrix project will be a prequel with Michael B. Jordan playing as the young Morpheus (played by Lawrence Fishburne in the original The Matrix trilogy), making you think that Warner Bros is taking a page from the Star Wars playbook.

Photo: Michael B. Jordan appearing as part of the "Fantastic Four" at the San Diego Comic Con 2015. (Flickr photo by Gage Skidmore)

It is an interesting project since Morpheus plays a pivotal role in The Matrix, as he mentored Neo to realise his potential, accept his fate as “The One” and become the central figure in the rebellion of those who escaped The Matrix against the sentient machines.  The prequel would probably be tackling the origins of Morpheus and how he managed to realise that The Matrix world was not real as it seems and be able to escape.

Honestly though, if there needs to be a prequel of The Matrix, I would be more interested in the origins of The Matrix itself and how the machines created by humans eventually rebelled and subdued humanity, turning them into a source of energy. That in itself is a story worth of a trilogy of prequels to the original The Matrix story. With the use of artificial intelligence on the rise, robots and drones being created at a faster rate, there are valid concerns from certain sectors, especially in the scientific community that the accelerating pace might lead to the machines eventually replacing humanity to the point of plotting the extinction of their masters. Skynet, anyone?

Now, back to The Matrix “Young Morpheus” prequel, Wrampler writes further that a Morpheus story has long been favoured by the powers-that-be at Warner Bros and that they have established a writers’ room to kick around ideas for new The Matrix films and the young Morpheus is one of the ideas.

Still, there is no official announcement from Warner Bros, perhaps due to doing a more long term planning for The Matrix franchise rather than just focusing on the Morpheus prequel. Who knows? They might also be discussing another follow through prequel after Morpheus, and it will be about the origins of Trinity (played by Carrie-Ann Moss in the original trilogy).