Carrie-Anne Moss’ best role wasn’t The Matrix and won’t be The Acolyte

The Matrix is one of the best action sci-fi movies of all time — however, Carrie-Anne Moss’ best role wasn’t Trinity, but a forgotten Marvel character.

Let’s be real — casting Carrie-Anne Moss as a Jedi Master in The Acolyte was a genius move. Moss will play Indara in the upcoming Star Wars series, and fans lost their minds when her involvement was announced, and rightly so. Best known for playing Trinity in the Wachowskis’ hit dystopian franchise The Matrix, she’s become synonymous with roles that push the boundaries of what action filmmaking can be.

16 years later, however, Moss landed herself a role in the hallowed canon of Marvel, joining the cast of Jessica Jones as a gender-swapped version of Jeri Hogarth. A no-nonsense lawyer who is on call for the erratic Jones, Jeri is featured in episodes of Daredevil, Iron Fist, and The Defenders, so Marvel clearly knew they were onto a good thing when Moss stepped on set. 

We still have a way to go before finding out exactly what role Moss will play in The Acolyte’s story, and we have a bad feeling it might be a fleeting cameo. Regardless, it’s Moss’ time with Jessica Jones that is the most well-spent — and the most overlooked. Forget Trinity and anything she might be able to do with a lightsaber; Jeri Hogarth is easily the pinnacle of Moss’s career. 

Out of the blue came Carrie-Anne Moss in Jessica Jones

Marvel/Netflix

Longtime MCU fans — yes, Jessica Jones is officially in the MCU now — will remember the thunderous uproar at NYCC 2015 when it was announced that Carrie-Anne Moss would be joining the series as Jeri Hogarth. For a good decade beforehand, Moss had effectively been wasted on minor TV shows, B-movies, and pilots that never went anywhere. While the industry had forgotten just how great she was, fans clearly hadn’t. Judging by the announcement alone, her debut as Jeri was the Marvel equivalent of the Messiah walking on water.

Season 1 of Jessica Jones is one of the strongest television debuts the studio has ever put out, and Moss is an integral part of why. Jones (Krysten Ritter) works in New York as a private investigator, crossing paths with intelligent psychopath Kilburn (David Tennant), who threatens to put everyone’s well-being in jeopardy. Hogarth calls on Jones to act as her off-the-record sleuth, using her skills for more sinister things. Compared to the slew of movies that have left its fanbase feeling fatigued, the series was sharp, sexy, and explicit, with Hogarth’s subplot of power-hungry infidelity with side chick Pam getting more realistically adult than the Marvel ever had been before.

Granted, things weren’t as remarkable in Seasons 2 and 3, but Moss was the glue that held the whole thing together. If Season 1 was a power play, Hogarth’s storyline in future episodes was about rediscovery. Regardless of the specific plot, Moss brought something so energetic, fierce, and authentic to Marvel with Jeri Hogarth that it revitalized interest in the — let’s be honest, flagging — second and third seasons of Jessica Jones. If anything, she made being a superhero fan exciting again. 

Jeri Hogarth marked the moment that Marvel could be more 

Marvel/Netflix

Unless you’re into that sort of thing, “sexy” isn’t really a word synonymous with Marvel superheroes — at least, it wasn’t until Carrie-Anne Moss made it so. Abrasive yet scintillating and scathing yet seductive, Jeri Hogarth is a subtle yet incredibly important milestone in the franchise’s history. Being its first openly lesbian character is enough of a record on its own, but it’s Moss’ honed craft, experience, and age-given wisdom that turns Jessica Jones into something much more. 

To push the MCU in the right direction, plotlines need to come down to Earth. Less Quantumania and more real-world problems could mean a jaded franchise is completely rejuvenated, and that’s exactly what Moss quietly achieved during her time there. The even better outcome would be to return to Moss after she was phased out, as Hogarth is clearly a character that Marvel knows has value. 

When it comes to ticking all of the boxes, Carrie-Anne Moss can’t do much better than she did in Jessica Jones. While Acolyte is placing her in the TV equivalent of the Legends slot at Glastonbury, they’re unlikely to single her out as an actor of worth (and with a franchise that featured Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford, why would they?) Marvel played a shrewd game with this tactic, benefitting both themselves and Moss’ career in turn. Now that the stakes are lower and Moss is back in industry favor, could she ever pull it out of the bag like she did in 2015? 

Find out what we know about Acolyte so far, alongside which Marvel movies and TV shows you need to keep an eye out for. You can also check out more on Marvel’s next release Deadpool and Wolverine, as well as how to watch all the Marvel movies in order.

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