It was 2014 when Toyota announced that they would be discontinuing the Matrix, after more than a decade. Since then, Toyota has provided no indication that they plan to resurrect the lame-ass hatchback…but then again, no-one has really been asking for them to do so.
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you, you can’t explain. But you feel it. It is this feeling that has brought you here. Do you know what I’m talking about? The Toyota Matrix. This your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, and the Toyota Matrix stays retired; you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to. You take the red pill, you keep reading, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.
Wait… you actually thought I was I going to have pills? Cool your ass-jets, Pill-head. (Man…I haven’t been confused with Laurence Fishburne this bad since that one time I went to the Dominican in ’97, and got that sweet deep tan…)
But yes, the internet went ablaze this week with two headlines. First, Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss will be reprising their roles as Neo and Trinity in an upcoming fourth installment of ‘The Matrix’ series to be released by 2022. Second, that Toyota wasn’t going to let the most natural crossover opportunity in the history of automotive entertainment pass them by. That’s right, Toyota plans to relaunch the Matrix, and tie its release into the movie release.
According to Tatsuro Ueda, one of Toyota’s Operating Officers, “Toyota believes in giving our valued customers exactly what they want. But if we’ve learned one thing from Warner Bros. announcing ‘The Matrix 4’, it’s also important that we’re willing to give our customers things that absolutely no-one has asked for. Which is why we’re glad to announce the upcoming return of the Toyota Matrix.”
According to insiders, another incentive for Toyota was the possibility of getting Keanu Reeves’ star power behind them. Reeves, of course, has ascended to a whole new level of fame in recent months, thanks to internet meme culture. And while his star has never truly faded, he has become a sort of modern urban legend based on his storied acts of benevolence, and well-known displays of moral propriety.
But this wouldn’t be Reeves foray into marketing Japanese product. Consider, for a moment, this classic Japanese commercial for Suntory Reserve whiskey.
Or this eye-catching campaign for a Japanese line of blue jeans.
In all honesty, no-one was really asking for any of those things either. With that in mind, only time will tell if ‘The Matrix 4’ and the re-released Toyota Matrix are warmly received by consumers. We don’t know the future. We didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. We came here to tell you how this is going to begin. We’re going to post this damn article and then we’re gonna show you a world where anything is possible. Where Toyota goes from here is a choice we leave to them.
