Twenty years since we all took the red pill and had our minds blown by bullet time, it seems we may be getting a fourth installment of the saga that is The Matrix.
The news comes from John Wick Chapter 3 director Chad Stahelski, who said the Wachowski siblings are working on a fourth story to the sci-fi tale.
The director told Yahoo Movies UK:
I’m super happy that the Wachowskis are not just doing a Matrix, but they’re expanding what we all love.
And if it’s anywhere near the level of what they’ve already done, it wouldn’t take more than a call to go, ‘Hey, we want you to be a stunt guy’ and I would probably go and get hit by a car.
Stahelski wasn’t sure if the Wachowskis will be directing the new feature themselves, though they are behind the followup. He added: ‘And if they wanted help, I would absolutely put down whatever I was doing to help them.’
It would be fitting for Stahelski to work on a new Matrix movie – the director worked as a stunt double for Keanu Reeves on the original trilogy. And the two obviously bonded, as Stahelski enlisted Reeves in the lead to his own directorial trilogy of John Wick films.
When asked if he would return to his role as Neo, Reeves told Yahoo:
The Wachowskis would have to be involved, they would have to write it and direct it. And then we’d see what the story is, but yeah, I dunno, that’d be weird, but why not?
People die, stories don’t. People in stories don’t.
However, with the news that the Wachowskis are involved in the project, Reeves added: ‘That would be a gift. I wouldn’t say no to that. Yeah.’
The 54-year-old said:
I think when you get to revisit a story and continue to tell a story, you’re bringing in the past and the work that you’ve done.
So for me, it’s about placing the emotional state of where you are into who the character is. How do they feel? How do they think? And then putting on the suit, if the costume really becomes the exterior that you fill in.
Of course, Reeves’ character (spoiler alert!) died at the end of the original trilogy, which resulted in the Matrix rebooting itself, and causing a ceasefire between the armies of man and machine. The film’s final scenes, however, definitely left it open that Neo could potentially return.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.