The director explained that returning to the franchise felt 'emotionally unfulfilling.'
The Matrix 4, now officially titled The Matrix: Resurrections, reunites Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss with director Lana Wachowski. However, Lilly Wachowski, who co-directed and co-wrote the first three alongside her sister, is not involved in the latest installment of the franchise. While speaking to reporters during the TCA Summer Press Tour panel for the Showtime series Work in Progress, she explained that the idea of going back didn’t appeal to her.
“Lana had another idea for a Matrix movie,” Lilly said, explaining that she came up with it in between the deaths of their mother and father. “There was something about the idea of going backwards and being a part of something that I’ve done before that was expressly unappealing.”
Not only did it follow several big projects that Lilly and Lana did together, including Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending and Sense 8, which left Lilly “completely exhausted,” but she found herself needed to take a step back.
Lilly then explained that after going through her transition and the “upheaval in my life,” the last thing she wanted to do “was go back to something [she’d] done before.”
“It was emotionally unfulfilling,” she added, explaining that’s when Work in Progress “fell in my lap.”
First premiering on Showtime in 2019, the series co-created by Abby McEnany and Tim Mason tells the story of a person named Abby who, in season 1, “enters into a transformative relationship during a time of crisis.”
Season 2, which premiered on Aug. 22 and is halfway through its run, picks back up with Abby after a breakup. And just as she’s regaining control of things, the pandemic hits and upends her life.
Lilly, who helmed the new episodes alongside McEnany, said the series “felt like a new thing that I could be more myself in.” And right now, she’s interested in exploring queer spaces.
In fact, earlier in the conversation she explained that she's excited she “got to be a part of a show where the main character is a super queer,” adding that the show is the first TV program she connected with as an out transgender woman.
As for the fourth installment of the Matrix, she previously told /Film, “I hope it's better than the original.”
When asked during the panel if there’s any chance the two will collaborate again, Lilly was unsure. “Maybe. I haven’t spoken to her since she’s finished [the movie],” she said, adding that, at the moment, “it feels really great to get [Work in Progress] out in the world.”
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