Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: keanu reeves, lana wachowski, lgbt, Lilly Wachowski, Matrix 4, The Matrix, transgender

Matrix 4: Keanu Reeves Didn't Know About Franchise as Trans Allegory

As far as the recent major revelation from director Lilly Wachowski about The Matrix franchise on its status as trans allegory went over the head of star Keanu Reeves, who played Neo/Thomas Anderson. "I never spoke to Lilly about that," the actor admitted to Yahoo while promoting Bill & Ted Face the Music out August 28 on digital and theaters. "She never conveyed that to me." Reeves is currently shooting the fourth film of the franchise. "I think The Matrix films are profound, and I think that allegorically, a lot of people in different versions of the film can speak to that," he continued. "And for Lilly to come out and share that with us, I think is cool."

Lilly stepped out of co-directing the fourth film with sister Lana Wachowski flying solo for the latest entry. Filling Lilly's role in co-writing with Lana is Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell, whom they worked with on the Netflix series Sense8. Lilly explained how the allegory made more sense when she and her sister came out as transgender, telling Netflix, "I'm glad people are talking about The Matrix movies with a trans narrative," she said. "I love how meaningful those films are to trans people, and the way that they come up to me say, 'Those movies saved my life.' Because when you talk about transformation, specifically in the world of science fiction, which is just about imagination and world-building and the idea of the seemingly impossible becoming possible, that's why it speaks it to them so much."

When asked how Hemon and Mitchell will further forward the narrative with Lana, Reeves offered, "I don't know. I think it'll be open to interpretation." Due to the pandemic and shooting delays, the fourth Matrix film is pushed to a 2022 release from Warner Bros. Pictures. In addition to Lilly, actors Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving also confirmed neither are participating, which leads to some interpretation what other roles might be for the new cast. Joining Reeves in returning are Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Lambert Wilson. New to the franchise are Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra, Jessica Henwick, and Jonathan Groff.

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