In a surprising move, it was revealed today that Warner Bros is ready to jack back into the Matrix for a fifth entry, this time from director Drew Goddard, director of Bad Times at the El Royale and Cabin in the Woods, making the first time a Wachowski is missing from the director’s chair. Lana Wachowski, co-writer and co-director of the original trilogy, will executive produce the film. No word on which characters or actors will be returning at this point.

A rep for Warner Bros, Jesse Erhman, had this to say on the upcoming project:

“Drew came to Warner Bros. with a new idea that we all believe would be an incredible way to continue the Matrix world, by both honoring what Lana and Lilly began over 25-years ago and offering a unique perspective based on his own love of the series and characters. The entire team at Warner Bros. Discovery is thrilled for Drew to be making this new Matrix film, adding his vision to the cinematic canon the Wachowskis’ spent a quarter of a century building here at the studio.”

It’s a bit surprising to hear that a fifth movie is in the works personally, as the fourth film, The Matrix Resurrections, was both a critical and commercial disappointment, bringing in roughly $160 million against a budget of $190 million; that said, it did release day to day in December 2021 in cinemas and HBO Max during the pandemic, so maybe Warner think that in a post-pandemic world, a fifth entry will do better. But as it stands, Resurrections was a pretty big miss, even though it tried to do something different, and more importantly, it was a major letdown in the action department, considering the original is a pillar of the genre. Time will tell if Goddard, who also wrote The Martian, can make The Matrix fresh again.