Get ready to jack into the Matrix once more. Only three years after The Matrix Resurrections, the pandemic-era installment that revisited the digital world after 18 years away, Warner Bros. is bringing the revolutionary sci-fi series back for a fifth film. But it won’t look or feel the same as previous installments — and it might not be a very good idea.
According to Variety, the as-yet-unnamed fifth Matrix movie will be the first of the franchise to not be directed by a Wachowski. Both Lana and Lilly Wachowski directed the first three movies, while Lana alone directed Resurrections. Lana Wachowski will serve as executive producer on the new movie, but it will be written and directed by Drew Goddard, who also wrote and helmed The Cabin in the Woods and Bad Times at the El Royale.
The Matrix Resurrections satirized the temptation to wring content out of nostalgia.
“It is not hyperbole to say The Matrix films changed both cinema and my life,” Goddard said, upon the movie’s announcement. “Lana and Lilly’s exquisite artistry inspires me on a daily basis, and I am beyond grateful for the chance to tell stories in their world.”
Goddard seems like a good choice for the project. He’s written for existing franchises with his work on World War Z, The Martian, and Netflix’s Daredevil series, while The Cabin in the Woods gave him experience with reality-shifting narratives. But the question isn’t who should direct a new Matrix movie; it’s whether a new Matrix movie should be made at all.
In Resurrections, Bugs argued that too much content can backfire.
Resurrections built its entire plot around sentimentality and nostalgia being misused by the wrong hands. Bug even tells Neo, “They took your story, something that meant so much to people like me, and turned it into something trivial. That’s what the Matrix does. It weaponizes every idea. Every dream. Everything that’s important to us.”
That’s not an argument for endless sequels, and in context, a sequel to Resurrections is about as contradictory as making Melancholia 2. The very concept means a sequel would completely miss the point of its source material. Maybe Goddard will find a way around the problem, or maybe The Matrix 5 will be a prequel or spinoff with minimal connections to the existing films. Ultimately, Warner Bros. isn’t going to let plot stand in the way of profit, even if the next movie could be called The Matrix Redundant.
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