It's pretty crazy to think that it has been 15 years since the sequels to the seminal sci-fi film The Matrix first dropped. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions both came out way back in 2003 and expanded out the mythology of the franchise as well as the cast, adding new faces like Jada Pinkett Smith's Niobe. In keeping with movie stars having better throwback Thursday photos than the rest of us, Jada Pinkett Smith shared an image from the set of The Matrix sequels, including a look at a very young Jaden Smith getting to hang out with his mom at work. Check it out.
If knowing that The Matrix sequels were 15 years old didn't make you feel old, seeing a young Jaden Smith here will certainly do it. The future Karate Kid, musician and sayer of strange things looks super young in this photo, and since The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions were filmed back to back from 2001 to 2002, he was probably only between like three or four in this picture. As Jada Pinkett Smith mentions in her Instagram post, her son will be turning 20 in July.
This is a fun picture too because we see a young Jaden Smith sitting still and quiet, a difficult feat for any kid, while he gets to watch his mom be a no-nonsense character in a huge action sci-fi movie, probably looking and acting much different than he is used to seeing her at home. One of the benefits to having an actor as a parent is that sometimes you get to visit the sets of huge blockbuster movies, and Jaden Smith's parents have certainly been in their fair share of them. I like that Jada Pinkett Smith is fully decked out in Niobe attire here, looking cool and badass, but with a smile on her face as young Jaden gets to watch her do her thing.
The Matrix may seem like such a long time ago (because it is), but what's old may become new again soon. As with just about everything that was once popular these days, The Matrix franchise looks like it will be returning in some fashion. There has been talk of this for a little bit and we still know very little, but we do know that Ready Player One screenwriter Zak Penn is working on a new Matrix movie. What form that will take is unclear since we've heard about everything from a young Morpheus movie, to a reboot that's not a reboot, to Michael B. Jordan starring and more. The possibilities are seemingly wide open at this point. Maybe we'll even get to see Niobe again, and since Jaden Smith is an actor now too, who knows, maybe he could be in front of the camera this time.
Jaden Smith will next appear in the Sundance hit, Skate Kitchen, in theaters on August 10. For all of the biggest movies still to come in 2018, check out our release schedule.
