Warner Brothers are resurrecting The Matrix. They shouldn’t

Warner Brothers have announced a new Matrix film, which for the first time will be not directed by either of the Wachowski sisters (who co-created the original trilogy.) 

Whether members of the original cast – like Keanu Reeves, Carrie Ann-Moss, Lawrence Fishburn and Hugo Weaving – will return has yet to be announced, and neither has the title or release date.

2021’s The Matrix Resurrections felt like a sincere attempt by Lana Wachowski (who directed without her sister) to kill off the franchise for good – it even provided a meta-narrative about a reluctant artist being coerced by Warner Brothers to revive his most famous work. The film was met with mixed reviews and – partly due to being released during the pandemic – performed disappointingly at the box office. The new sequel seems like an attempt to correct this.

While she won’t be directly involved, Lana Wachowski is returning as an executive producer (did the executive board of Warner Brothers kidnap her dog and hold it ransom, or something?), a decision that feels at odds with the spirit of the previous film – which took a critical view towards corporate cynicism and a culture dominated by Intellectual Property, reboots and nostalgia, despite in some ways being an example of exactly that. 

I wasn’t crazy about The Matrix Resurrections (even its fans have a tendency to say things like, “you idiot! Don’t you understand that it’s supposed to be bad?”), but I thought it was interesting and ambitious. The fact that both Wachowski sisters are trans is also integral to what makes The Matrix films so fascinating – the scene in the 1999 original when Keanu Reeves shouts “my…name…is…Neo!!!” hits different when you read as a rebuke to deadnaming and an assertion of trans identity, as plenty of critics have.

The forthcoming sequel will probably offer a more by-the-numbers, fan-pleasing iteration of The Matrix, with better action scenes than Resurrections, maybe, but less to say. The filmography of Drew Goddard doesn’t inspire much confidence: he has written a handful of serviceable blockbusters (Cloverfield, World War Z and The Martian); he created Netflix’s Daredevil series, and he directed the satirical horror film Cabin in the Woods. I’m sure his Matrix film will be serviceable, but the Wachowskis have a singular creative vision – made more interesting by its flaws and idiosyncrasies – which will not easily be replaced by a jobbing director.