Many fans are still reeling from the news that Warner Bros. is exploring aMatrix reboot, with the studio bringing onZak Penn(The Avengers) to write a treatment. The project is still in the very early stages of development, although sources claim thatMichael B. Jordanis being eyed for the project, with another report stating that Warner Bros. is planning a writers room to come up with ideas for a cinematic universe. But that hasn’t been confirmed by the studio. If this does come to fruition,The Matrix 4will become the latest in a growing group of franchises to use this writers room format.
Deadlinebroke the news of this potential writers room being utilized, but it isn’t clear howZak Pennwill fit into this process. As of now, the initial report only revealed that he’s writing the treatment and not the full screenplay yet, but perhaps this treatment will provide a roadmap of sorts for the writers room. As forMichael B. Jordan’s potential involvement, it isn’t known what kind of role he may have, or if his character will have any connection to characters from the original trilogy. It still hasn’t been confirmed if theWachowskisiblings, Lana and Lily, will be involved, or if the original producer,Joel Silverwill come back as well, althoughJoel Silverrecently did address the possibility of anotherMatrix movielast year.
While promoting his comedyThe Nice Guys,Joel Silversaid that the original trilogy was, “very seriously designed as three stories,” although he added that he hoped there would be a time where anotherMatrixmovie could happen. The original report from last night, though, revealed thatJoel Silveractually approached the studio about making moreMatrixfilms, even though he doesn’t have a stake in the franchise anymore. Warner Bros. boughtJoel Silver’s stake in theMatrix franchisefor roughly $30 million back in 2012, and last night’s report hinted that the studio is much more interested in bringing theWachowskisiblings on board, than the producer, sinceJoel Silverreportedly has a “strained” relationship with the filmmakers, and he also has issues with keeping budgets under control.
Just a few weeks before this news broke, originalMatrixstarKeanu Reevesrevealed he would come back to play Neo in a newMatrixmovie, as long as theWachowskisiblings were on board to both write and direct. Whether or not that will happen is still up in the air, but if the studio is actually going with a writers room format for this franchise, that likely means theWachowskisiblings won’t be writing the script directly. As far as the writers room approach goes, that format has increasingly grown in popularity since it was first introduced with the Universal monsters reboot franchise. Since then, several other franchises have created their own writers rooms, such asTransformers,G.I. Joe,Sherlock Holmes,GodzillaandKing Kong.
Back in 2014, a rumor surfaced that theWachowskisiblings were coming back to write and direct a newMatrix trilogy, with the first of these movies hitting theaters in 2017. The filmmakers reportedly had already turned in outlines and treatments for the nextMatrixtrilogy, but even if that report was true, it seems the studio is putting their faith in writerZak Pennfor now. Then again, that could have just been an unsubstantiated rumor, much like the report that surfaced in 2011, whenKeanu Reevesrevealed during a speech at the London School of Performing Arts University that there will be two moreMatrixmovies happening in 3D. Hopefully Warner Bros. will shed some new light on these reports ofThe Matrixreboot soon.Michael B. Jordanis currently filmingBlack Panther, which hits theaters on July 31, 2025.
