After years of speculation and debate, Lilly Wachowski, the co-director of Keanu Reeves starrer The Matrix Trilogy has revealed that it was her and sister Lana’s ‘original intention’ that the films be viewed as transgender allegory. During a Netflix video interview, Lilly discussed the transgender theory that is often propagated by LGBTQ activists. The activists maintain that the films embody the experience of a closeted trans person finally realising their true identity.
For years, fans of THE MATRIX have discussed the film through a trans lens. If you’ve heard the theory before or just learned about it, here’s a thread breaking down the trans allegory of the film, from trans writers and critics.
Welcome to the desert of the real. (thread) pic.twitter.com/XlgY8hAcNI
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
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Lilly and Lana are both trans women and had started the franchise with The Matrix in 1999. The film had two very successful sequels- The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. She further said that the idea of the Matrix, was all about, “the desire for transformation, but it was all coming from a closeted point of view". She also revealed that the original plan for Switch -- played by Belinda McClory - was to have the character be "a woman inside the Matrix, but a man in the real world".
She further said, “I don’t know how present my transness was in the background of my brain as we were writing it... 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.”
There’s also the character Switch (Belinda McClory), who was originally written as a trans masculine person. As Lilly Wachowski says, her and Lana's initial plan was for Switch to present as a man in the real world and a woman in The Matrix. pic.twitter.com/EBkJnN815N
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
Lilly’s sister Lana is currently working on the much-awaited sequel in the franchise with both Keanu and Carrie-Anne Moss returning to play Neo and Trinity respectively. Jada Pinkett Smith and Lambert Wilson are also reprising their roles from previous films in the new film. The film will also stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Jonathan Groff.
(Source: PTI/Netflix)