The Matrix series re-reloads with plans for anoth­er sequel

You have before you two pills: one will return you to the com­fort­able illu­sion you once knew as exis­tence, where you’ll con­tin­ue to live in bliss­ful igno­rance. The oth­er will drag you into real­i­ty, where the rest of us have just received news that a fourth Matrix film is real and hap­pen­ing. This is not a simulation.

The Wachowskis’ most pop­u­lar cre­ation will take on a new chap­ter at Warn­er Bros, accord­ing to an exclu­sive post­ed to Vari­ety this after­noon. The most imme­di­ate­ly strik­ing detail of the pro­duc­tion is that this will not be a sis­ter-sis­ter affair, as only Lana has signed on to write and direct the new film while Lil­ly sojourns into the wilds of TV.

But key cast mem­bers Keanu Reeves and Car­rie-Anne Moss will indeed return to reprise their roles as cho­sen one Neo and his lethal ally Trin­i­ty, respec­tive­ly. Oth­er note­wor­thy per­son­nel includes Wachowski’s co-writ­ers on the new script, nov­el­ists Alek­san­dar Hemon (who wrote The Lazarus Project) and David Mitchell (who penned Cloud Atlas).

Production’s sched­uled to get up and run­ning at the start of 2020, which leaves fans already prone to con­spir­a­cy the­o­riz­ing plen­ty of time to get wrapped up in their own the­o­ries. Will Neo con­tin­ue to pro­tect the rem­nants of human­i­ty from the machines, or will he pass his lega­cy on to a new hero? What of Hugo Weav­ing​‘s Agent Smith? And will the trans­gen­der sub­text final­ly become regular-text?

At a time when every­thing seems to be fod­der for reboot­ing, grant­i­ng that treat­ment to a prop­er­ty with the intel­lec­tu­al meat to sus­tain anoth­er install­ment and doing so with the orig­i­nal tal­ent all seems to be a good move. But lest we for­get that they did indeed make two Matrix sequels, which were reviled by many and cham­pi­oned by a select few. A sim­i­lar recep­tion may not be far off.