The Matrix 4: Lilly Wachowski explains why she didn’t return for the sequel

The Wachowski’s wrote and directed The Matrix trilogy together, but when it came time for the fourth installment of the franchise, Lana Wachowski wound up directing it by herself. During a Television Critics Association panel for her Showtime series Work in Progress, Lilly Wachowski explained why she isn’t involved in The Matrix 4.

“That’s a tough one,” Lilly said. “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.” When her sister approached her with the idea for The Matrix 4 (which was confirmed to be titled The Matrix Resurrections at CinemaCon), Lilly Wachowski knew that she needed to move on.

[Lana] had come up with this idea for another Matrix movie, and we had this talk, and it was actually — we started talking about it in between [our] dad dying and [our] mom dying, which was like five weeks apart. And there was something about the idea of going backward and being a part of something that I had done before that was expressly unappealing. 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.

As for whether Lilly Wachowski might work with her sister again in the future, she merely said, “Who knows? Maybe.” The Matrix 4 will feature the return of Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss as Neo and Trinity, respectively, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick, Neil Patrick Harris, Jonathan Groff, and more along for the ride. The Matrix Resurrections is slated to hit theaters and stream on HBO Max on December 22, 2021.