Here’s Why Lilly Wachowski (Probably) Won’t Be Part of ‘The Matrix 4’

It’s official; we’re getting a Matrix 4. Yet even though Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss have signed onto the movie, fans may have noticed that one big name is missing from the project: though Lana Wachowski is set to write and direct, her sister Lilly Wachowski currently isn’t attached to the project – with good reason.

Lilly Wachowski has yet to give a comment about her involvement in the movie, but at the Television Critics Association’s 2019 summer tour, the Wachowski sister explained why she has taken a step back from science fiction. “I sort of feel like I’ve got one foot out the door. I’ve got the exit, and I’m like, ‘Am I in or out? I’m not sure,'” Wachowski explained during a panel for Showtime’s upcoming Work in Progress. The director serves as an executive producer for Abby McEnany’s dramedy about a depressed lesbian woman trying to find a reason not to kill herself.

While she was in this liminal space in her career, Wachowski enrolled in the paint department at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. “My agent kept sending me stuff, and a lot of science fiction. Great. It’s good stuff, science fiction. You get to talk a lot about a lot of subjects. There’s always fabulous subtext in science fiction,” Wachowski explained. “Since my transition, I’m not really interested in subtext at this time.”

Her agent then sent Wachowski McEnany’s show, and she quickly signed on. “The show is so unusual because whenever you put on a trans person or a queer person in a role like this, it is a revolutionary act, because you don’t see characters like this on TV, really. It just doesn’t happen,” Wachowski said. “I am just, like, ‘Oh, my God, this is really a once in a lifetime opportunity to get involved in something like this.’ And to be an executive producer, I don’t have to do anything. I’m like, ‘Yeah. I’ll do that gig. That sounds great.'”

When asked what it’s been like dealing with a project as frank as Work in Progress as opposed to the subtext of science fiction, Wachowski said it was “super freeing.” “I’m really enjoying writing with this group of people, who are absolutely wonderful and super-duper funny, and being able to engage in this dialogue about queerness and transness and all of these issues, like fat phobia and ageism and all of the and mental illness. It’s all super important to get these messages out there. And so yeah, it was, like, ‘I’m in. Where do I sign?'” Wachowski  said.

Work in Progress premieres on Showtime December 8.