Morpheus

Morpheus is a fictional character in The Matrix franchise. He is portrayed by Laurence Fishburne in the first three films, and in the video game The Matrix: Path of Neo, where he was the only original actor to reprise his character's voice. In The Matrix Resurrections, an AI program based on him is portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Concept and creation The Wachowski brothers, the creators of The Matrix franchise, instructed Fishburne to base his performance on Morpheus, a character in Neil Gaiman's comic book series The Sandman. At the studio's request, Gaiman later wrote "Goliath", a promotional short story set in the film's universe. The name Morpheus is that of the god of dreams in Greek mythology, which is consistent with the character's involvement with the "dreaming" of the Matrix. The mythical Morpheus and his family, including two brothers (Phobetor and Phantasos), lived in a dream world protected by the Gates of Morpheus with two monsters standing guard. Beyond the gates were the River of Forgetfulness, beside which Morpheus once carried his father to hide in a cave, and the River of Oblivion. This theme of duality carries over to Morpheus in The Matrix, who offers Neo either a blue pill (to forget about the Matrix and continue to live in the world of illusion) or a red pill (to enter the painful world of reality). Fishburne did not reprise his role in the 2021 The Matrix Resurrections film. He stated that, "I am not in the next Matrix movie, and you'd have to ask Lana Wachowski why, because I don't have an answer for that". Both Vulture and Polygon highlighted that the recasting of Morpheus might imply that Matrix transmedia (such as The Matrix Online) remains part of the canon.