Keanu Reeves revealed that a transgender character was written into 1999’s “The Matrix,” but was removed from the script because the film studio wasn’t “ready” to put a trans character on the big screen.
“I think the studio wasn’t ready for that,” Reeves remarked. So instead, the character Switch, was rewritten as androgynous and played by a woman in the first two films.
“The corporate world wasn’t ready for it,” director Lily Wachowski said in a separate interview. ” ‘The Matrix’ stuff was all about a desire for transformation but it was all coming from a closeted point of view.”
The original trilogy’s directors, siblings Lana and Lily Wachowski, are both transgender. Lana transitioned first in 2008, after the duo’s flop “Speed Racer” was released, and became the first major Hollywood director to come out as trans.
Lily revealed she was transgender in a March 2016 statement. “I am one of the lucky ones. Having the support of my family and the means to afford doctors and therapists has given me the chance to actually survive this process. Transgender people without support, means and privilege do not have this luxury. And many do not survive.”
Lily did not return to direct the upcoming fourth installment of the franchise, in part due to her transition. “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.”
“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 detailed. “So 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.”
Lana explained that the upcoming sequel centers on characters Neo (Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss) trapped back in the Matrix with no memory of their past lives fighting to free humanity from it.
“Technology paradoxically brought us closer together while also isolating or inculcating us from each other,” she said. “The power of technology to trap or limit our subjective reality was an important part of the new narrative for Matrix Resurrections.”
The film will be released in theaters on December 22nd. Watch the trailer:
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