Why 'The Matrix 5' Isn't a Bad Idea

Especially with Drew Goddard at the helm.

The Matrix Resurrections is a very funny movie. It is aggressively meta with co-creator, co-writer, and director Lana Wachowski pretty much stepping out in the series’ fourth installment and saying, “Warner Bros. was going to make a sequel whether my sister Lilly and I wanted to or not, so I stepped up, brought back Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne Moss, and made a big, unabashed love story that also pointedly critiqued studio demands to make sequels. It’s not a perfect movie, although it works far better than Reloaded and Revolutions, which have admirable ambition but haphazard execution.

In light of this, it may be simple to quickly dismiss news of The Matrix 5 as an easy cash grab for a studio relying on IP. But I’d counter that while they should leave the Neo/Trinity story alone, The Matrix as an idea is still worth exploring. One of the neat ideas alluded to in Reloaded is that what we’re witnessing was the sixth iteration of The Matrix, which means the loop of humans awakening to their digital prison only to rebel had happened five times before. This conflict of humans-vs-machines has new facets to explore (like in Reloaded we’re told offhandedly that werewolves existed at one point; that’s neat!), and if you have a talented storyteller attached, why not give it a go?

Keanu Reeves as Neo in The Matrix Reloaded | Image via Warner Bros.