As we approach its release date, the marketing campaign for The Matrix Resurrections continues to prove exemplary. The latest clip of of the highly-anticipated instalment, which dropped during The Game Awards, answers fans’ phone booth questions and goes some way towards explaining Laurence Fishburne’s absence in the franchise’s latest.

In the roughly one minute footage, Bugs (Jessica Henwick) explains to Neo (Keanu Reeves) that Redpills “don’t have to run to phone booths anymore” to enter and exit the Matrix, and that hackers instead create portals. Handy, considering their near-extinction in the modern world. She then leads Neo into a room where he is met by another version of Morpheus, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, while Fishburne’s Morpheus is projected onto the walls through clips of the first Matrix film. It confirms that while Resurrections’ Morpheus might be played by a different actor, he is aware of his own history over the three previous films.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Candyman actor also explained that fans will soon learn the new rules of The Matrix; “Age, appearance, the things we identify as real, can be manipulated in that world,” while also reaffirming that his portrayal is a “different iteration” of Morpheus.

Yet this new clip might suggest that the changes in appearance are purely cosmetic, and that Abdul-Mateen’s Morpheus is the same character as Fishburne’s; so the statement that Morpheus is a different iteration may just be a reference to the character’s development over the period elapsed, as opposed to some parallel universe version of character. After all, “nothing comforts anxiety like a little nostalgia,” quips Abdul-Mateen’s Morpheus in a meta wink to the viewer. For any hard answers though, we’ll have to wait for the film’s release.

The Matrix Resurrections releases in cinemas on December 22nd, with a simultaneous release on HBO Max in the U.S. Watch the trailer here, and watch the clip in question below: