Red-pilled: Can The Matrix Resurrections reclaim Neo from the alt-right?

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes… remember, all I’m offering is the truth, nothing more.” That moment was invoked this week in a viral marketing campaign for The Matrix Resurrections – the fourth film in the franchise – which is set for release this December. In May 2020, after Elon Musk tweeted: “Take the red pill” and Ivanka Trump replied: “Taken!”, Lilly responded pithily: “F*** both of you”. Hugo Weaving’s terrifying baddie Agent Smith only ever refers to Neo by his original, socially approved name “Mister Anderson”, a practice known as “deadnaming” when done to trans people. The fact that the red pill/blue pill dichotomy is so prominent in the new film’s advertising, though, does suggest she’d like to reclaim them – symbols not of right-wing nonsense, but of positive change.