Lilly Wachowski Confirms that 'The Matrix' is a Trans Story

When The Matrix first opened in 1999, everyone was talking about it. It was a revolutionary look at computers, mankind, automation, and the feeling that what we felt on the inside was not projected on the outside. 

There was so much for the audience to glean from these movies. 

As director Lilly Wachowski put it, “When you make movies, it’s this public art form. I think any kind of art that you put out in the universe, there’s a letting-go process because it’s entering into public dialogue. I like that there’s an evolution process that we as human beings engage in art in a non-linear way. That we can always talk about something in new ways and in new light.”

That's why now, 20 years later, it's interesting to see how The Matrix has taken on the trans allegory. 

In a video interview for Netflix, Wachowski spoke about the trilogy’s implicit trans narrative.

Obviously, the movie's creators, Lily and Lana, are both trans, but they had not come out upon the movie's release. 

“I’m glad that it’s gotten out that that was the original intention,” she says in a video interview to promote the new documentary Disclosure. “The world wasn’t quite ready, at a corporate level...the corporate world wasn’t ready for it [at the time].”

Since the movies' release, both Wachowskis have come out as trans. 

“I don’t know how present my transness was in the background of my brain as we were writing it,” Wachowski said. “We were always living in a world of imagination. That’s why I gravitated toward sci-fi and fantasy and played Dungeons and Dragons. It was all about creating worlds. It freed us up as filmmakers because we were able to imagine stuff at that time that you didn’t necessarily see onscreen.”

They're talking about this now because they want to embrace the storyline which has been around since the movie's inception. 

As Lilly stated in her 2016 GLAAD Award speech, “There’s a critical eye being cast back on Lana and I’s work through the lens of our transness,” she said. “This is a cool thing because it’s an excellent reminder that art is never static. And while the ideas of identity and transformation are critical components in our work, the bedrock that all ideas rest upon is love.”

A 4th Matrix movie was shooting before the pandemic and will surely resume after. 

I can't wait to see where the next films take us. 

Source: Netflix Film Club