Another familiar face from the original Matrix movies has been confirmed to return for the upcoming fourth film. Deadline reports that actor/stuntman Daniel Bernhardt is set to return as Agent Johnson in the new film, a character that debuted in 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded. As fans might recall, Johnson (pictured above) first appeared in the opening minutes of the sequel as one of the upgraded Agents eager to take on Neo and the resistance. He would appear throughout the film in an attempt to fight Reeves’ character, at one point being assimilated into the legion of Agent Smith clones, and later fighting Morpheus during the famous highway sequence.
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The character was last seen in that moment of the sequel, driving a semi-truck into another semi-truck in an attempt to kill Morpheus and The Keymaker which naturally resulted in a gigantic explosion. Though Agent Johnson is never seen from that point on, it can only be assumed that at some point he’s destroyed or absorbed by Agent Smith, as the final fight sequence in The Matrix Revolutions shows that The Matrix is populated exclusively by Agent Smith clones.
How Agent Johnson will return for the film remains a mystery, but at this point almost everything about the sequel is a big question mark. In addition to Bernhardt as Agent Johnson, stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann Moss are returning to their roles of Neo and Trinity along with Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe and Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian also set to reprise. Sadly not everyone will be returning with Hugo Weaving previously revealing he wouldn’t be returning as Agent Smith, but only because his schedule was too full. Weaving’s absence makes the addition of Bernhardt even more confusing.
The film will also see John Wick directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch return to the franchise, having previously worked on the stunt team for the original trilogy. Stahelski told Collider in an interview earlier this year that the pair were both involved with choreographing sequences for the sequel.
“They asked us to help out with the choreography and some of the physical training for the guys,” Stahelski said. “I’m helping out a little bit for a sequence, I think Dave’s helping out for a sequence. Lana’s come back with a lot of love to have a pseudo-family reunion, so that’s been a lot of fun. It’s been good to see a lot of the crew members again. We just finished doing a sequence in San Francisco before the pandemic started.”
Production has resumed on the new movie in Berlin, Germany after being shut down by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Following the stoppage in production, Warner Brothers has delayed the feature from May 21, 2021 with a new release date of April 1, 2022. Filmmaker Lana Wachowski returned for the film as well, serving as director and co-writer.
