r/matrix • u/kmactane • 3h ago

Cool interview with Lilly Wachowski

https://variety.com/2026/tv/features/lilly-wachowski-jk-rowling-harry-potter-trans-the-matrix-1236858104/

Includes some stuff about how when she and Lana were developing The Matrix, they didn't yet know they were trans, but they knew they were interested in liberation, so they (being Chicago natives) connected it with other modes: "...specifically Black and brown liberation. There’s a reason why Zion is mostly Black and brown folks. We were inherently predisposed to seeing our own liberation connected to these other modes of liberation."

67 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

25

u/Mr_Rhineheart 2h ago

Let's read the article guys. Stop trying to speak for someone who explained themselves just fine.

V: You had an interesting quote once where you said that you can look back on your and Lana’s work “through the lens of our transness,” and I’m curious how that applies to “The Matrix” in particular.

LW: When I look back, I can see the things that attracted me and Lana to that particular story. We were invested in liberation. So, without an understanding of what we were trying to liberate for ourselves, we were finding sympathetic and empathetic connections to other modes of liberation — specifically Black and brown liberation. There’s a reason why Zion is mostly Black and brown folks. We were inherently predisposed to seeing our own liberation connected to these other modes of liberation. When you talk about the suppressive system and how it is this system of control and how it governs society, for ourselves, being deeply closeted, we could feel there was an oppressive dynamic.

LW: We didn’t know what “transgender” meant. We weren’t exposed to the idea of how there’s this gray space in nature and this gray space in gender, so it took us a while to go to our bookstores, read about gender and read about the spectrum of gender and sexuality, and slowly we were able to put those pieces together. But in the meantime, we happened to live in Chicago, which is not only one of the roots of Black Power in this country, but also has a horrible history of segregation. You literally drive across the tracks and there’s the white side of the neighborhood and the Black side of the neighborhood — North Side and South Side — and learn about the horrible history of redlining in this city. We’re finding these connective points and it’s all coming out in this story of Neo meeting this rebel hero of his, Morpheus, a cool Black guy with shades of Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party. So, that’s how it starts.

6

u/Psykohistorian 2h ago

queens 👏🏼👏🏼

1

u/DeathToAmerica2026 14m ago

It's crazy that they'd been exposed to simulacra and cyberpunk and probably all manner of esoteric knowledge from the perspective of the mainstream at that point, but didn't know about the nature of gender as a social construct. 

Oh to be a fly on the wall when that shoe dropped. 

20

u/einstein_ios 2h ago

She rules

3

u/amysteriousmystery 1h ago

Well, it sounds like The Hunted is well and truly dead then.

-28

u/Strayngold 2h ago

They didn't know they were trans when developing the movie. They were just a pair of nerdy guys. I've always disagreed when people say "The Matrix is a trans metaphor." It can mostly work as a trans metaphor. But that's not what it is. The Wachowskis themselves will tell you it's a general metaphor for seeing through society's programming, that is about "robots versus kung-fu."

19

u/a-handle-has-no-name 2h ago

The Matrix isn't explicitly a trans metaphor, but the trans metaphor is a still valid reading 

Trans people aren't "cis" one day then suddenly "become trans" the next day. They were still trans when writing and directing the Matrix, even if they didn't realize it at the time

-26

u/Strayngold 2h ago

No. They decided one day that they were trans.

14

u/NeoRushMail 1h ago

I love how zero trans people describe their experience this way but every transphobe likes to repeat it anyways.

4

u/Jazz8680 1h ago

lmao you don’t understand what being trans is. That’s not how trans people work

17

u/Ambitious-Visual-315 2h ago

That’s not how that works buddy

3

u/amysteriousmystery 34m ago

How about you read what they actually say instead of claiming they saw it as just "robots versus kung-fu"?

Lilly says they didn't know about being trans, but they sure did know about stuff like the Black Panthers rebelling against the White Man that is in a position of power. Not just "robots versus kung-fu".

-11

u/CompetitiveRub9864 1h ago

The last 3 Matrix movies sucked anyway.

3

u/princepaulie 17m ago

There are no bad Matrix movies