Lilly Wachowski has finally shed some light on her decision not to return to the director's chair alongside her sibling and longtime collaborator, Lana Wachowski, for the upcoming fourth installment of The Matrix franchise. The first footage for the next film was recently shown off at CinemaCon, along with an official confirmation of the title The Matrix: Resurrections.During a recent virtual panel for her Showtime series Work in Progress, Lilly Wachowski spoke in detail about her decision to move on from the franchise that made her and Lana household names.
During the panel, Lilly Wachowski said of her decision to sit out of The Matrix 4, "I got out of my transition and was just completely exhausted because we had made Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending, and the first season of Sense8 back-to-back-to-back. We were posting one, and prepping the other at the exact same time. So you're talking about three 100-plus days of shooting for each project, and so, coming out and just being completely exhausted, my world was like, falling apart to some extent even while I was like, you know, cracking out of my egg. So I needed this time away from this industry. I needed to reconnect with myself as an artist and I did that by going back to school and painting and stuff."
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Wachowski went on to explain that she and Lana begantalking about a fourth Matrix film around the time that their parents passed away. "There was something about the idea of going backward and being a part of something that I had done before that was expressly unappealing," Lilly Wachowski said. "And, like, I didn't want to have gone through my transition and gone through this massive upheaval in my life, the sense of loss from my mom and dad, to want to go back to something that I had done before, and sort of [walk] over old paths that I had walked in, felt emotionally unfulfilling, and really the opposite — like I was going to go back and live in these old shoes, in a way. And I didn't want to do that."
Lilly Wachowski currently serves as showrunner, executive producer, writer, and director on the Showtime series Work In Progress, which just premiered its second season. The dark comedy stars comedian and co-creator Abby McEnany as a self-identifying "fat, queer dyke" who struggles with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Lilly and Lana Wachowski have collaborated on many projects in the past, including the first three Matrix films. They also co-wrote and directed the science fiction epics Jupiter Ascending and Cloud Atlas, and they also co-created the short-lived but popular Netflix series Sense8. The Matrix 4 marks the first installment of the science-fiction franchise on which the sibling duo did not work together.
While Lilly Wachowski's talents will be sorely missed in the next Matrix film, her reasons for leaving the franchise seem perfectly understandable. It makes sense that she wouldn't want to return to something that brings to mind a particularly difficult time in her life. Thankfully, Lilly Wachowski seems very happy and right at home on Work In Progress, which is currently airing Sunday nights on Showtime. When asked if she would ever collaborate with her sibling again, Lilly Wachowski said, "Who knows? Who knows? Maybe,"
Like many productions over the past year, The Matrix 4 has had a rocky road. Filming was halted in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and finally resumed in August of the same year. However, the film is slated to be one of many Warner Bros. productions that will debut in theaters and HBO Max on the same day in 2021. The fourth Matrix film will be led by returning cast members Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Jada Pinkett Smith.
The Matrix: Resurrections premieres in theatres and on HBO Max on December 22, 2021.
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Source: Entertainment Weekly
