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Jada Pinkett Smith may not have had the most loving relationship with her “separated” husband Will Smith in the last few years. However, they were one of the most celebrated couples in the industry at one point. In 2004, Will Smith’s I, Robot hit theaters. Besides his brilliant acting performance, Smith showed off his ripped body in a naked shower scene in the film.

Will Smith in a still from I, Robot | Credits: 20th Century Fox

During an interview, Smith explained the psychological reasons behind baring it all for the scene. He also explained his process behind looking extremely fit in the film. He shared that his wife Jada Pinkett Smith watched the scene and decided to hit the gym almost immediately.

Will Smith’s naked scene in I, Robot forced Jada Pinkett Smith to hit the gym Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe in The Matrix | Credits: Warner Bros.

Will...

How many movies arrive with the seismic thunder of The Matrix? Debuting to little fanfare in 1999, the movie became a sensation. Suddenly, black leather, trenchcoats, and sleek sunglasses became all the rage. Other movies rushed to parody and pilfer the film’s fight choreography. And in a feat matched only by Star Wars, The Matrix spawned its own religion. Suffice it to say anticipation ran high for the arrival of The Matrix Reloaded four years later.

In another feat also only matched by Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, The Matrix Reloaded debuted to Leviathan hype. Warner Bros. promoted the film with 24-hour showings in cinemas, but this time, the audience walked away feeling cheated and confused. In fact, despite earning positive reviews and doing mammoth box office, The Matrix Reloaded gained — and still maintains — a reputation as one of the worst sequels of all time. Thus, the time has come...

What was Jada Pinkett Smith’s condition about working in The Matrix Reloaded? (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Jada Pinkett Smith not only gets recognized as Will Smith’s wife but also as a multi-hyphenated star. She started as an actress, moved on to the music industry, tried her hands as a talk show host, and so on and so forth. However, it was reported that Jada wanted to join The Matrix franchise in the very first film and even auditioned for Trinity’s role. On the other hand, Will Smith was offered to play Neo’s role. However, it didn’t work out and Trinity’s role went to Carrie-Ann Moss.

But the actress became a part of the franchise as she joined ‘The Matrix Reloaded’ as Niobe. Yes, that’s right. She then went on to feature in the sequels, The Matrix Revolution and The Matrix Resurrections. But, did you know before she said yes,...

Actress Jada Pinkett Smith reportedly first hoped to join The Matrix franchise in the very first film and auditioned for the role of Trinity, while her husband, Will Smith was offered the role of Neo. While that alternative universe would surely have been whack, the couple could not do their roles, and Carrie-Anne Moss took up the role of Trinity.

A still from The Matrix Reloaded | Credits: Warner Bros.

However, Pinkett Smith finally joined the franchise in The Matrix Reloaded, playing the part of Niobe. She went on to play the part in the sequels, The Matrix Revolutions and Resurrections as well as the video game Enter the Matrix. While the role was written with her in mind, she reportedly had one condition that needed to be fulfilled for her to join.

The Wachowskis happily agreed to Jada Pinkett Smith’s clause while offering The Matrix Reloaded Jada Pinkett Smith...

The recent release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has demonstrated the close ties between the mediums of video games and cinema. Whether it is explicit movie tie-in games or film adaptations of popular gaming franchises, the two formats often take inspiration from one another. The Great Circle demonstrates a different trend, however; video games that create their own story within the pre-existing context of a film's world. These games pay tribute to their muses, honoring the rich lore and stories crafted by their cinematic counterparts.

Instead of being a direct adaptation of any Indiana Jones movie (besides the introductory tutorial), The Great Circle features a unique story that is not directly taken from any of the five films. It is inspired by the narratives and atmosphere crafted by the Hollywood blockbuster franchise and has successfully created its own tale which has received much critical and fan acclaim. This...

From Keanu Reeves to Laurence Fishburne, the cast of The Matrix trilogy is full of great movie stars who made unforgettable icons out of their characters. The Wachowskis assembled one of the best movie casts of the 90s when they were putting together their groundbreaking sci-fi actioner, and brought in even more screen legends when they came back to direct the sequels. They recruited actors who were already big names in Hollywood, like Reeves and Fishburne, and they also gave some new actors their big break. Carrie-Anne Moss first gained international attention with her role in The Matrix.

The Matrix almost had a very different cast. Will Smith was approached to play Neo and Sean Connery was approached to play Morpheus. Janet Jackson came close to clinching the role of Trinity, but she had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts. With these original choices in the roles, The Matrix...

Keanu Reeves wasn't the Wachowskis' first choice to play The Matrix's main protagonist, and if the original actor hadn't turned down the role, it would have afforded them a specific career opportunity. Confirmation of The Matrix 5 means Neo will be one of Reeves' most-reprised roles, so it's clear that casting him as the sci-fi franchise's leading man was the right move. Not only that, Thomas "Neo" Anderson remains one of Keanu Reeves' best characters, so long after his debut as the iconic figure. There's no guarantee that the role's first-choice actor would have afforded the saga such success.

Despite the seemingly finite ending of the original Matrix trilogy, the production of two legacy sequels proves how beloved the franchise still is. Although Reeves wasn't the only reason for the sci-fi saga's triumph, he was a big part of what made it all come together. However, if things had gone a little differently,...

The Matrix franchise has left an indelible mark on pop culture ever since the groundbreaking film’s release in 1999. The mind-bending, way-ahead-of-its-time concept of a simulated reality, combined with stunning visuals and thrilling action sequences, captivated audiences worldwide.

Naturally, the success of the movies led to the creation of several video games aiming to immerse players in the Matrix universe.

In this article, we’ll rank all the Matrix games released so far—from the least impressive to the most outstanding. Let’s take a look at how each game attempted to capture the spirit of The Matrix, evaluate their storylines and gameplay mechanics, and judge their overall influence on the gaming industry!

4. The Matrix Online ‘Tis the Matrix Mmorpg! | Image via AlphaYellow YouTube Channel

The Matrix Online, an ambitious Mmorpg developed by Monolith Productions, sought to continue the story of the Matrix universe after the events of The Matrix Revolutions.

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As a successful American actress, producer, and screenwriter, Jada Pinkett Smith has tackled her career head-on. Famous for her work in The Nutty Professor, A Different World, and Girls Trip, Jada also played Niobe in three of The Matrix films.

Eddie Murphy as Professor Sherman Klump / Buddy Love and Jada Pinkett as Carla Purty in the 1996 American comedy film The Nutty Professor (Credit: Universal Pictures)

As such a global hit, this woman has managed to shape her talent and success,...

Bugs, Niobe, and Morpheus are all prime candidates for spinoff films in order to revitalize the struggling Matrix franchise. Tank, Seraph, and The Architect also have potential for standalone movies to delve into their untold stories within the Matrix universe. Trinity emerges as the most obvious choice to lead the Matrix franchise forward after her character's powerful development.

The Matrix franchise has been in a bit of trouble for the past few years, but these 10 The Matrix characters could totally carry their own spinoffs and save the franchise in the process. Kenau Reeves' Neo has been the lead of all four live-action The Matrix movies so far, and while he is a fantastic protagonist for the original story, there simply isn't much to do with him any more. Because of this, The Matrix has to pull from its massive gallery of side characters for whatever comes next, and these 10 would make perfect candidates.

Quick Links Mifune Led Zion's Resistance Against the Invading Sentinels Cypher Cleverly Sold Out His Own Crew, But Paid For It Niobe Could Survive Against the Agents and Piloted Ships With Great Skill Tank Was the Operator When Neo Joined the Crew Link Did Well as Tank's Successor as the Operator Agent Smith Kept Finding New Ways to Hunt Neo Down Neo Was a Skilled Hacker & Could Hatch Daring Plans Morpheus Commanded a Ship & Understood Advanced Philosophy The Oracle Saw All & Knew All The Architect Could Design Entire Worlds

Back in the late 1990s, the Wachowskis launched one of the most popular, engaging, and thought-provoking movie trilogies of all time, the Matrix trilogy. The first Matrix movie was a sci-fi adventure that challenged viewers to question everything about reality, artificial intelligence, and the meaning of human life. It was an intellectually stimulating movie, and the two sequels were often like that,...

The Kid, a minor character in The Matrix franchise, has a cool backstory that is revealed in The Animatrix. With his real name revealed as Michael Karl Popper, the Kid starts having dreams about his death and seeks answers from Neo. The Kid's belief in the illusion of reality allows him to escape the Matrix, making him one of the strongest minds in the saga.

The character known as the Kid in The Matrix franchise has long been one of the least favorite among audiences, but he surprisingly has a very cool backstory. While the first installment of the franchise focuses on the Nebuchadnezzar's crew, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions expand the universe, introducing Zion, and many other ships and secondary characters, such as Niobe, Lock, or Captain Mifune. Among those additions, the Kid, a minor character who ends up being quite relevant to the plot at the end of the third movie,...

The Matrix explores themes of predetermined fate vs. free will, with characters like Neo and Agent Smith debating whether their actions are inevitable or chosen. Morpheus strongly believes in fate and Neo's role in ending the war, causing tension with other characters planning Zion's defense. The characters' philosophical debates sometimes undercut their own arguments by repeating them too often, but they provide thought-provoking discussions on destiny and choice.

The Matrix franchise addresses philosophical themes of predetermined fate contrasting with free will. Neo (Keanu Reeves) and the other main characters whose lives have previously been determined by the Matrix's virtual reality understandably wonder about what they do have control over. Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) in particular often argues that humans and machines alike can only follow an "inevitable" path.

While Neo's mentor Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) also strongly believes in fate, his beliefs have a more positive connotation than Smith's.

Warning: Contains potential Spoilers for The Matrix ResurrectionsThe Matrix Resurrections cast features some familiar returning faces along with new ones, including some extremely controversial roles being recast. The Matrix Resurrections is the long-awaited fourth installment in the Matrix franchise and given the sprawling nature of the Matrix saga, the long list of characters is expectedly complex. The movie follows Neo as he assesses the reality of his new state of living and faces off against new and old foes in the process. On his new journey, Neo reunites with old allies as well as a fresh slate of new faces, who aid Neo on his latest mission of self-discovery.

Lana Wachowski's ambitious sequel takes a very meta approach to its story, deconstructing the original Matrix trilogy while also telling its own personal tale with Neo and Trinity. The latest entry follows what happened in the Matrix trilogy and tackles...

When The Matrix first hit theaters in 1999, audiences were blown away by the action, characters, and visual effects. 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the back-to-back releases of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. The first three movies were cinematographic masterpieces that set a new standard for special effects and introduced a new breed of hero.

Related: 10 Action Movies That Aged Poorly

While The Matrix series remains a timeless cult classic, a handful of effects, characters, and scenes have not aged as well as Keanu Reeves. The Matrix's special effects, considered mind-blowing back in 2003, are less impressive by today's standards. Some characters and scenes readily accepted in the early 2000s are deemed questionable and insensitive. The Matrix movies do not need to be shelved completely, but some bits and pieces are outdated and out of touch.

The Woman In Red The Matrix

Trinity and Niobe are two incredibly powerful women in The Matrix series.

Although the first film in the franchise released over 20 years ago, The Matrix remains one of the grandest and most ambitious sci-fi franchises. One of the biggest highlights of the film series is the undeniably cool characters, who boast impressive fighting skills, cool demeanors, and are integral to the films' stories.

Related: 10 Best Matrix Fights, Ranked

As The Matrix Reloaded hits its 25th anniversary, fans are discussing some of their favorite and the most iconic characters from The Matrix. The Matrix boasts some of sci-fi's most memorable individuals, from the iconic Neo to the villainous Agent Smith.

Captain Niobe

Captain Niobe is a prominent presence throughout the last three Matrix films. As a skilled pilot and one of the most capable martial artists, she provides valuable assistance during the rebels' war against the machines.

Jada Pinkett Smith brings a dominant energy to Captain Niobe, whose resilient nature shows she is not to be messed with.

The Matrix series is a film franchise that seems uniquely well-suited for video game adaptations, but not as many Matrix video games can be played right now as fans might hope. Although the world of the films is already built up around themes of technology and code, only a limited number of games have taken advantage of this perfect opportunity. Even worse, several of the titles that have released to date are no longer available for new players to experience. Luckily, those looking to step into the shoes of characters like Neo aren't entirely out of options for Matrix games to play.

Famous for their striking visuals and stylized fighting choreography, the Matrix films felt like Mortal Kombat fighting games and stylish shooters brought to life. Both of these components came together to make what should have been perfect video games, as dodging projectiles in bullet-time while fighting an unstoppable Agent Smith would,...

This four-part Netflix series isn’t the first time that Josephine Hart’s 1991 novel Damage has been adapted for screen. In 1992, celebrated French director Louis Malle made a feature film of Hart’s book that welcomed Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche, Miranda Richardson, Peter Stomare and Rupert Graves to this exploration of erotic obsession. The film earned Richardson a Best Actress nomination among many others at that year’s Academy Awards.

This serialised version was created by playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm with writer Benji Walters, and directed by Ordinary Love, Good Vibrations and Cherry Bomb‘s Lisa Barrow D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn, updates the action to the modern day and remoulds the characters somewhat. Richard Armitage plays successful surgeon Will, husband to Ingrid and father to Jay and Sally, while Charlie Muphy’s character Anna Barton is expanded to explore her response to the fallout of the story’s scandalous central affair.

The Matrix Reloaded was part of a larger transmedia experiment that had the unfortunate effect of diminishing Jada Pinkett Smith's role. The original Matrix was such a pop culture-defining success that sequels were all but a certainty. What fans of the original couldn't have anticipated is just how divisive those follow-ups would be. Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions were both released in 2003 and while though boasted cutting-edge special effects and impressive action, they were also littered with ponderous dialogue, choppy plotting and anti-climatic endings. The sequels may not have fully delivered on expectations, but if nothing else, their ambition can be admired.

Sadly, the Matrix movies weren't much of a showcase of Jada Pinkett Smith either. Despite being hyped as a major new character and love interest for Laurence Fishburne's Morpheus, Smith's Niobe is largely offscreen for large chunks of both films. Niobe gets a slightly larger role in...

The Matrix Revolutions gave Laurence Fishburne almost nothing to do as Morpheus, but there was an easy fix to this problem. The hype for The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions was so high in 2003 that it would have been nearly impossible for them to meet expectations. Even by that metric, both proved extremely divisive. Audiences were equal parts baffled and frustrated by The Matrix movie follow-ups, and even the ending of Revolutions felt somewhat anti-climatic. In retrospect, it's easier to see what the Wachowskis were attempting with the films.

Reloaded, in particular, is a subversion of the classic hero's journey, with the function of "The One" within the Matrix being revealed as just another system of control. Regardless, the sequels were both flawed experiences, with Revolutions underserving some major characters like Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) and Morpheus. Fishburne was especially underused, with Morpheus essentially becoming co-pilot to Jada Pinkett Smith's...

The Matrix Resurrections has a lot of problems, but the film's biggest problem was justifying another sequel. Although The Matrix trilogy isn't perfect, it has a self-contained story that is perfectly wrapped up by the end of the third film. The Matrix Resurrections was a completely unneeded entry in an otherwise finished franchise, but the film goes jumps through hoops in attempting to justify its existence.

The Matrix Resurrections sees the return of Neo and Trinity as they are once again tasked with taking down the simulation that has enslaved humanity. Released in 2021, 18 years after the 2003 release of The Matrix Revolutions, the film was the long-awaited turn to the Wachowskis' beloved sci-fi franchise. However, The Matrix Resurrections was a box office and critical failure, with the box office issues compounded by its simultaneous HBO Max release. The Matrix Resurrections struggles to justify itself and can feel like it's just trying...

The Matrix Resurrections made some controversial story decisions with Morpheus, but there is another character the movie sadly shortchanged. In The Matrix Resurrections, Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) is a video game developer who slowly begins to remember that he is Neo and the world around him is a computer-generated facade known as the Matrix. After being awoken again by human freedom fighters led by Bugs (Jessica Henwick) and his old mentor Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), Neo sets about trying to re-awaken his old love Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss).

The return of Morpheus in The Matrix Resurrections proved to be somewhat polarizing, with the character being re-imagined as an amalgam of the consciousness of Laurence Fishburne's Morpheus and Agent Smith. However, the character who really gets the short end of the stick in The Matrix Resurrections is the Kid (Clayton Watson), who previously appeared in The Animatrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions.

Throughout various scenes, The Matrix Resurrections teased a resolution to some of its foundational plot points but ultimately failed to deliver on its best humans vs. machines storyline. Matrix 4 arrived after a decades-long hiatus, promising a return to the unique world-building that the Wachowskis created at the dawn of the new millennium, but ultimately chose to lampoon the concept of sequels in general and subvert fan expectations rather than provide a follow-up to the events of the original Matrix trilogy. What should have been the central premise became a side note as the movie regurgitated old ideas through Neo and Trinity unplugging from the Matrix and defeating the machines all over again.

At one point, General Niobe explains to Neo that in the 60 years since the peace accord with the machines, even after what happened to Zion in the Matrix trilogy, it was still destroyed during the Machine Civil War.

The first two sequels of Lilly and Lana Wachowski's seminal science-fiction movie, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions, were both released in 2003. Typically, sequels to major Hollywood tent pole movies take at least a couple of years to be released, yet this was not the case for The Matrix franchise. Only six months separated the release of The Matrix Reloaded (in May 2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (in November 2003). In fact, The Matrix Reloaded was released on DVD only three weeks before The Matrix Revolutions opened in theaters worldwide.

The theatrical release of The Matrix Revolutions, specifically, was a major gamble. In contrast to a typical film release, the first showings of Neo's swan song, The Matrix Revolutions debuted at the exact same moment in over 100 countries worldwide (at approximately 14:00 GMT on 5th November 2003). This kind of simultaneous release had never been attempted before. The release...