10 Movie Characters Who Were SHAFTED In 2021
1. Agent Smith - The Matrix Resurrections
It wasn't exactly breaking news to discover that Hugo Weaving was not brought back for the mind-boggling return to The Matrix this year, with the confirmation of his lack of involvement being made known a year earlier.
However, that still didn't change the fact that many were left reeling by the overall treatment of Weaving's iconic Agent Smith over the course of this routinely unexpected upgrade of the system. Whilst other non-returning actors like Laurence Fishburne in the role of the masterful Morpheus being swapped out and changed up didn't seem to detract from the overall mystique and importance of the character itself in the sequel, Resurrections' decision to strip away all that made Smith such a formidable and memorable foe felt like a real slap in the face to those who cherish the series.
Instead of the stoic, "Mr. Anderson" spouting one-man programme of destruction, we were given a still charismatic enough Jonathan Groff acting as a slightly revamped version of his former self. But with only a few sweet fight scenes and the odd reminder of his former, more mesmerising self from archive footage to Smith's name in the flick, you'd be forgiven for wanting to instantly uninstall this recent update.