The Matrix Resurrections was a long time coming. The fourth installment in the seminal sci-fi saga is being released nearly two decades after the third, The Matrix Revolutions. While that’s a pretty big gap, it’s better than not getting another film at all. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, that’s almost exactly what happened: director Lana Wachowski nearly dropped the project altogether.
Jessica Henwick, a newcomer to the Matrix series, recently spoke with Collider about the intense training that went into The Matrix Resurrections and the shut-down that threatened the film’s release. The movie was in the middle of production when COVID-19 forced the cast and crew to sequester themselves in quarantine. According to Jessica Henwick, the break made director Lana Wachowski reconsider the fate of the film. She said:
When we were shut down for COVID and we went off three months, I still was at home training every day, even though we didn’t know if we were going back. When we got shut down for COVID, Lana said, ‘Well, maybe that’s it. Maybe we won’t come back and film the rest of it. Maybe the new Matrix will go down as this legendary film which was incomplete, and no one will ever be able to see it. Maybe that’s what this is meant to be.’ And we were all going, ‘No, you have to finish the film.’ But she really did toy with the idea of just calling it quits… For me, even though I didn’t know whether we would come back, I couldn’t think about that, and so I trained throughout the entire break because I just had to focus. I just had to be positive and go, ‘No, we’re gonna go finish the film. We have to. This can’t be how my Matrix journey ends.’
Luckily for Jessica Henwick and The Matrix fans everywhere, Lana Wachowski chose to complete The Matrix Resurrections after getting the green light to resume production. It would have been a shame for the movie to never see the light of day, given the huge hype surrounding the project. And it seems like all of Jessica Henwick’s insane training would have gone to waste as well. Fortunately, if the trailer is any indication, The Matrix Resurrections looks like it will include all of the mind-bending action and sci-fi violence that characterized the first three entries in the series. So get ready, Matrix fans: it looks like we’re taking another red pill.
The Matrix Resurrections will hit theaters and HBO Max on December 22, 2021. Jessica Henwick will star alongside series veterans Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Jada Pinkett Smith. Newcomers to the world of the Matrix include Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, and Jonathan Groff.