August 27, 2021
Director Lilly Wachowski Explains Why She's Not Involved with New 'The Matrix' Film
Emell Adolphus READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Soon everyone will be entering the Matrix once again when the fourth installment of the beloved sci-fi action series, "The Matrix Resurrections," hits theaters and HBO Max this December.
However, one person who tapped out of taking the red pill (watch the Matrix to understand this reference!) again is filmmaker Lilly Wachowski, who directed the first three hit films of the Matrix with sister, Lana.
As reported by AV Club, Lilly is noticeably absent from involvement on "Matrix Resurrections" because she felt like being involved in another installment of the series would be "going backwards."
"There was something about the idea of going backwards and being a part of something that I had done before that was expressly unappealing," Wachowski said at Showtime's Television Critics Association panel for TV series "Work in Progress." The films were made, she explained, before she went through her transition to living in her truth as a woman in 2016.
"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," she said. "Like I was going to go back and live in these old shoes in a way. And I didn't want to do that."
On top of losing her parents and undergoing her transition, Wachowski also explained that she experienced burnout after the films were completed. The sisters did one more project together, the first season of Netflix's "Sense8," then started taking on solo projects.
"That's a tough one," said Wachowski about the process, during the panel. "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," the filmmaker went on to explain. "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."
She added: "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."
