Why was Neo surprised when the Architect told him there were other Ones before him?

Question

The Architect: Quite right. Interesting. That was quicker than the
others.
The responses of other Neos appear on the monitors: "Others? What
others? How many? Answer me!"
The Architect: The matrix is older than you know. I prefer counting
from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the
next, in which case this is the sixth version.
Again, the responses of the other Ones appear on the monitors: "Five
versions? Three? I've been lied too. This is bullshit."
Neo: There are only two possible explanations: either no one told me,
or no one knows.

However, one day before this conversation he had a similar conversation with the Merovingian:

The Merovingian: Handle us? You'll handle us? You know, your predecessors had much more respect.

The Merovingian: Mark my words boy, Mark them well, I have survived your
predecessors and I will survive you.

Note: I am aware of this question, however it is clearly a different question. I am asking about the behaviour of Neo, not about the hints presented in the movie.

Keith Morrison · Answer

He knew there was at least one other before him: Morpheus explicitly told him in the first film, as the person who founded Zion (with there having only been that single One as far as Morpheus and the rest were aware).
As for the Merovingian, "your predecessors" is sufficiently vague that it could be interpreted different ways: remember, Neo wasn't alone when they met, and the everyone could have easily interpreted "your predecessors" as "The first One and the sidekicks that he brought with him, as opposed to you three I'm talking to right now". Or he might not have even registered the plural at all: you can remove the final s off of "predecessor" and the sentences are completely grammatically correct.
In fact, given the reveal with the Architect, this might have been entirely intentional on the part of the script as the audience might have had similar interpretations or have missed that plural as well. I know that when I saw the film, the assumption he meant "the first One and his buddies" as opposed to "Neo and his buddies" was the interpretation I went away with until the later reveal.

abathur · Answer

Two thoughts:
I'm not sure I accept the headline interpretation, here.
The audience may project surprise onto this Neo, but it's much harder to make the case that it's on the page or in the scene.

When The Architect says "That was quicker than the others", our Neo says nothing--he just quietly takes in the reactions of the others.
While the others flip out about what version they're in, our Neo calmly does the math about what it means.
After The Architect tells him the anomaly is systemic, he gives us a quiet twirl to take in the reactions of the screaming, swearing, bird-flipping Neos before him--and turns back to the camera with the solution to the problem.

It's clear that this is news to our Neo, but I don't think his behavior is "surprised" in this iteration.
Focusing on the semantics and connotations of the word "predecessor" ignores the elephant in the room.
The Merovingian is a shifty, scheming character--and the clue he drops twice is ambiguous until The Architect drops the proof:

Why was Neo surprised when the Architect told him there were other Ones before him?

2 Answers

I'm not sure I accept the headline interpretation, here.

Focusing on the semantics and connotations of the word "predecessor" ignores the elephant in the room.

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