The Matrix 4 has a 'beautiful script and wonderful story' says Keanu Reeves

The Matrix 4 is coming in 2021, a sequel releasing a whole 18 years after the last movie. Stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss have explained why they've returned for this fourth movie, which will be directed by Lana Wachowski. It turns out it's all about her script. 

"Lana Wachowski wrote a beautiful script and a wonderful story that resonated with me," Reeves told Empire. "That’s the only reason to do it. To work with her again is just amazing. It's been really special, and the story has, I think, some meaningful things to say, and that we can take some nourishment from."

The script is co-written by Wachowski, as well as Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell and author and Princeton professor Aleksandar Hemon. Absolutely nothing is known about the movie's story, including how both Neo and Trinity return from the dead in this new entry. The large ensemble cast also features Jada Pinkett Smith reprising her role as Niobe, as well as actors like Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra and Watchmen's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.

Set photos have shown Reeves wearing a Jedi-style white robe, as well as the John Wick actor riding on the back of a motorbike driven by Moss. Two figures were also filmed jumping off a tall office in San Francisco's financial district for the movie. That sure sounds like The Matrix to us. 

"I never thought that it would happen. It was never on my radar at all," explained Carrie-Ann Moss in the same interview. Moss had nothing but kind words for the screenplay, too, praising its "incredible depth and all of the integrity and artistry that you could imagine".

The Matrix 4 had to pause filming in Berlin after the worldwide pandemic kicked off, but reports say production may begin again in early July. The film is less than a year away, with the release date set for May 21, 2021. 

• 2020 movies: what's still coming out this year
• The best Netflix movies
• What we know about Dune

Why is there a Matrix 4?

The two questions we're all surely asking about The Matrix 4 are: what's it about, and why does it exist? Appetite for another film in the series was limited after 2003's The Matrix Revolutions, which got mostly negative reviews and made less money than its predecessor. But a long time has passed, and the core idea of The Matrix – that our reality is a simulation controlled by AI – remains compelling.  

There's also little doubt that Wachowski has new things to say about The Matrix's core themes of freedom, control and the reality we choose to see. 

• Black Widow: what we know about Marvel's next movie