Lilly Wachowski is officially unplugging herself from The Matrix.
The filmmaker, who directed the original trilogy with her sister Lana Wachowski, recently confessed she’s “kinda done” with the groundbreaking and prescient franchise. While Lilly didn’t provide a specific reason as to why, it sounds as though the incessant studio desire to mine existing IP has left her creatively fatigued.
Lilly Wachowski No Longer Interested in Being a Part of The Matrix Franchise
“Warner Bros. wants to make another thing,” Lilly, said during an appearance on Kim Masters’ The Business podcast. “They’re always going to want to make another thing. Personally, I don’t want to play in that sandbox anymore.”
If she does return, it will be as a producer for a fifth Matrix outing written and directed by Drew Goddard, whose resume is chock full of high-profile genre titles: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost, The Good Place, Netflix’s Daredevil, Cloverfield, World War Z, The Cabin in the Woods, The Martian and, more recently, Project Hail Mary.
“He doesn’t want to go forward unless he gets our blessing,” added Lilly, who recently launched her own studio Anarchists United. “And so, it becomes this complicated situation that maybe we’re gonna stick our noses in a tiny bit, see how we feel and if we want to pass on our blessing to Drew or not. So, it could be something that’s coming down the road, but still unknown.”
Goddard offered a brief update on the project earlier this year, confirming to Variety that the script is still being written.
“I need to give myself space to find the best story,” he explained. “I think the approach will be the way I approach anything, which is, do I love it? And I love what Lana and Lilly Wachowski did with those movies.”
Goddard continued: “They mean so much to me and I feel like they’ve had a profound impact on my creative voice. I take this responsibility very seriously. I feel the weight of wanting to do right by the fans, wanting to do right by the creators and wanting to do right for myself as a fan.”
Lilly did not return for The Matrix Resurrections, allowing Lana to fly solo on the fourth installment. The long-awaited sequel concurrently hit theaters and HBO Max in December 2021 to middling reviews and $157 million at the global box office.
Following The Matrix Revolutions in 2003, the sibling directors went on to helm Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending. They also wrote the screenplay for James McTeigue’s adaptation of V for Vendetta and co-created the Netflix series Sense8.
