Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss Confirmed for Fourth ‘Matrix’ Film

Get ready for a whole new pill to swallow when The Matrix returns for a fourth installment, with both Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss set to reprise their roles as Neo and Trinity, Variety reports. Filmmaker Lana Wachowski, who co-directed the original film with her sister Lilly, will write and direct the sequel. Production is expected to begin in early 2020.

Wachowski will co-write the Matrix 4 script with Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell (Lilly will ostensibly not be involved as she focuses on a new project, Work in Progress). Hemon works mostly as a fiction writer and essayist, though his screenwriting credits include the film Love Island(not to be confused with the reality show) and he also had a small role in Sense8, the sci-fi drama the Wachowskis created with J. Michael Straczynski. Mitchell, meanwhile, is best known for co-creating, writing and starring in the British sitcom Peep Show.

“Many of the ideas Lilly and I explored 20 years ago about our reality are even more relevant now,” Wachowski said in a statement. “I’m very happy to have these characters back in my life and grateful for another chance to work with my brilliant friends.”

“We could not be more excited to be re-entering The Matrix with Lana,” Warner Bros. Picture Group Chairman Toby Emmerich said. “Lana is a true visionary — a singular and original creative filmmaker — and we are thrilled that she is writing, directing and producing this new chapter in The Matrix universe.”

A new Matrix project has reportedly been in-the-works for years, though until now it wasn’t clear what form the project would take and who from the original creative team would be involved. The first Matrix film was an unexpected smash upon its release in 1999, picking up four Academy Awards. While its sequels, Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, were less well received, they were still huge box office successes.

Reeves told Rolling Stone in 2000 that he was immediately interested in The Matrix based on the script. He liked Neo’s quest in the film, especially the line “What truth?” and he liked the martial arts. “I dig kung-fu movies,” he said at the time. “It’s just fun. Fake fights are fun.”