One key character from The Matrix franchise is even older than The Oracle and was around long before any of the pre-Neo candidates to fulfill the prophecy of The One. In the first Matrix movie, when Neo is awakened in the real world, he has to be brought up to speed. Morpheus explains most of it, but Neo’s eyes aren’t really opened until he meets The Oracle, who’s savvy to every single decision made within the Matrix, which gives her what appears to be an ability to see into the future.
The Oracle is not only one of the best characters in The Matrix franchise, but one of the oldest and wisest figures in the saga. She knows more than just about any other character in the series and her world-weary wisdom is instrumental in guiding Neo on his hero’s journey. But there’s a character that predates her, and even predates all the previous versions of The One that came and went off-screen. One of the new characters introduced in The Matrix sequels expanded the backstory of the franchise with his complicated origins.
The Merovingian Is Older Than The Oracle (& Comes From The Failed Matrix)
The Merovingian Is An Exiled Program
The Merovingian, sometimes alternatively referred to as “The Frenchman,” was first introduced in The Matrix Reloaded, and later reappeared in The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Resurrections. He’s played by French actor Lambert Wilson in all three of these movies, and he was voiced by Robin Atkin Downes in the video game The Matrix: Path of Neo. The Merovingian is shown to be rude, selfish, and cynical, but he has a good reason to be so jaded: he’s been around for a really, really long time. He even predates The Oracle, who’s been around for a while herself.
The Oracle confirms that The Merovingian is one of the oldest programs in the Matrix. The Merovingian himself claims that he has lived through multiple different iterations of the Matrix and has encountered multiple different versions of The One. It’s established that Neo wasn’t the first person believed to be The One; a bunch of other people were thought to be The One — the prophesized messiah who would end the war between the humans and the machines — but they all failed. Before they failed, a few of them were unfortunate enough to meet The Merovingian.
Where The Oracle believes that choice is the only real truth of the Matrix, The Merovingian believes it’s causality.
The Merovingian is an exiled program; he and his wife Persephone run a safe haven for other exiled programs seeking refuge. He and his inner circle presumably came from one of the two failed versions of the Matrix; either the one that was a nightmare, which would explain his cynicism, or the one that was too perfect, which would explain his hedonistic lifestyle. During his long time in the Matrix, The Merovingian came to a very different conclusion than The Oracle. Where The Oracle believes that choice is the only real truth of the Matrix, The Merovingian believes it’s causality.
The Oracle Was Created To Help Build A Better Version Of The Matrix
The Merovingian Hated The Oracle Because Their Ideologies Conflicted
After the two failed versions of the Matrix went kaput, The Oracle was created to help build a more sustainable version of the simulation, which was the third cycle of the Matrix. This was also the first iteration to include The One. The Oracle is integral to the existence of the Matrix; without her, the system would collapse. She was designed to investigate the human psyche. She lives in a quaint apartment, where she meets with various “potentials” who possess the qualities of The One. This is where Neo meets The Oracle (and the spoon-bending kid) in the first movie.
Mary Alice took over the role of The Oracle in The Matrix franchise after Gloria Foster pᴀssed away.
The Merovingian has an intense hatred for The Oracle. He even asks Trinity to bring him The Oracle’s eyes as a ransom for liberating Neo from Mobil Avenue. The Merovingian hated The Oracle because her outlook on the Matrix directly conflicted with his; they each saw the world a different way. He liked things the way they were — he was free to live however he wanted as an exiled program within the simulation — whereas The Oracle was determined to identify The One and help to free the human race from its robotic overlords.
The Merovingian And His Allies Got To Live As Exiled Programs In The Third Matrix Iteration
The Third Version Of The Matrix Was The First To Emulate The Imperfect Real World
The first two versions of the Matrix were designed as a utopian paradise and they didn’t work, because people could tell they were in a simulation. The human mind rejected a perfect world, because it seemed too good to be true (and, of course, it was). So, the third iteration of the Matrix was created to reflect the imperfections of the real world. It became much rarer for people to notice the simulation. Canonically, there are only two characters who realized something was amiss and woke up: The Kid from The Matrix Reloaded and Dan Davis from The Animatrix spinoff.
The human mind rejected a perfect world, because it seemed too good to be true (and, of course, it was). So, the third iteration of the Matrix was created to reflect the imperfections of the real world.
The Merovingian managed to survive the reboot and made his way into the third iteration of the Matrix as an exile. During his time in the new, imperfect simulation, he developed his signature bitter pessimism. He came to view love as a pointless, dangerous emotion similar to insanity. He’s married, but he often engages in affairs, and acts arrogantly to everyone around him. Living a life without consequences as an exile in a computer simulation full of messy imperfections eventually turned The Merovingian into a monster.
What Happened To The Merovingian After The Matrix Reloaded
The Merovingian Is A Very Different Person In The Matrix Resurrections
When The Merovingian was introduced in The Matrix Reloaded, he was shown to be rich, powerful, and pretty much untouchable. But by the time The Matrix Resurrections rolled around, he was a very different person in a very different place. The fourth movie establishes that 60 years have pᴀssed since the end of the Machine War. During that time, The Merovingian has lost most of his power, his esteemed status, and even his sanity. When the belated sequel catches up with him, he’s a broken man, downtrodden and desperate.
In The Matrix Resurrections, The Merovingian seeks vengeance against Neo for unwittingly stripping him of his purpose when he destroyed the previous iteration of the Matrix. The Merovingian and the other exiled programs attack Neo, but Neo manages to defeat them. It only took 60 years, but one of The Matrix franchise’s oldest and most despicable characters did eventually get his comeuppance.
