Is That Old Niobe In Matrix Resurrections Trailer? Why She’s Aged So Much

The newest Matrix Resurrections trailer apparently reveals an older Niobe, leaving audiences wondering why she has aged. The Zion rebel, played by an aged-up Jada Pinkett-Smith, is shown speaking to Neo. She is one of several compelling revelations in the trailer, including the return of Agent Smith. There is a likely explanation for her age, as well as multiple possibilities regarding her role in the upcoming blockbuster.

Niobe entered the saga in The Matrix Reloaded, where she fought in the human rebellion against the Machines and piloted Logos and Logos II, Zion hovercraft ships. Within the Matrix, she ranks amongst the highest in martial arts; in the real world, she has the best piloting skills in the Resistance. Her and Morpheus’s embrace at the end of The Matrix Revolutions hinted at the rekindling of their romance, which may be expanded on in The Matrix Resurrections, alongside Morpheus’ fate and Niobe’s life up until the events of the fourth film.

Niobe’s aging is most likely due to her living in the real world, namely Zion, while time passed since the third film’s conclusion. Neo and Trinity are also older than they were before, but they haven’t aged as much. This is perhaps because they are stuck in circles within the Matrix, as Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Morpheus explains in the beginning of The Matrix Resurrections trailer: “We can’t see it, but we’re all trapped inside these strange repeating loops.” Living outside of the simulated reality, Niobe would remain unaffected.

In the quick trailer scene, she tells Neo, “It’s so easy to forget how much noise the Matrix pumps into your head. Something else makes the same kind of noise:war.” It’s clear that the quick shot of the character saying “war” implies the truce between humans and Machines that Neo brokered in The Matrix Revolutions has faltered, and that she will once again play a role in a human rebellion. Neo’s hair is shaved when Niobe speaks to him, suggesting that he is freed from the Matrix in this shot — and most likely at Zion. Given Niobe’s age, it wouldn’t be unlikely for her to enter the conflict in the position of a Zion councilor, one of twelve persons with a final say on the city’s governance.

It might also be possible that Niobe will have a mentor-like hand in supporting Neo, now that she is a believer in the prophecy of the One. She had originally ended her relationship with Morpheus when he learned about the prophecy from the Oracle and committed himself to searching for humanity’s savior. It would be ironic and beautiful to see Niobe come full circle in The Matrix Resurrections and stand by the new Morpheus to guide Neo once more into the role of the One.