The way things work nowadays, remakes and reboots tend to clog the multiplexes. When Hollywood tries something original, like The Nice Guys for example, audiences basically overlook it in favor of the familiar – from another X-Men movie to the latest Marvel blockbuster. So you can understand why legendary producer Joel Silver was asked if one of his most successful film series, The Matrix trilogy, could ever extend, or even be remade. His answer gives me hope that the Wachowski’s vision will be left untouched.
As you likely recall, 1999’s The Matrix was such an inventive, genre-bending piece of science-fiction, the Wachowski Sisters immediately were tasked with creating a sequel. They took it one step further and crafted a trilogy, delivering The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. The sequels didn’t quite live up to the original film, but it doesn’t sound like anyone is going to get another crack at it. When asked by Loaded if more Matrix movies were on the table, Silver said:
We haven’t talked about it yet. I hope there’ll be a time we can do that at some point. That was very seriously designed as three stories and that was it, but we’ll see what happens.
Joel Silver doesn’t close the door on ever revisiting the world of Neo (Keanu Reeves) and the Matrix. But in saying that the narrative was "seriously designed" as three movies makes it pretty clear that there’s no reason to try and add a fourth Matrix movie. That, naturally, leaves the idea open to a remake. However, seeing as how far ahead of the curve the first Matrix movie was – and continues to be – it would be decades before a young, still-undiscovered director would, could or should come around to try and reinterpret what Lana and Lilly Wachowski accomplished in that groundbreaking feature film.
All of this is EXACTLY what I want the producer of a trilogy like The Matrix to say. Not every franchise needs to extend its story for the benefit of a cash grab. And not every original idea needs to be remade again and again, because a brand has name recognition. Keanu Reeves is happy reinventing other genres with movies like John Wick and Man of Tai Chi. And the Wachowskis push the envelope in movies like Jupiter Ascending and Cloud Atlas. You might not love what they’re delivering, but at least they are trying. What do you think? Should The Matrix be remade? Should Reeves comes back for The Matrix Part 4? Weigh in below!
