It’s been over a year since Warner Bros. made it official that The Matrix 5 was in development. However, we know that some projects can take years and sometimes decades to come to life, so the silence after the announcement pointed to a lengthy process. This week, however, Warner Bros. CEOs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy spoke to Deadline and provided an important update on the fifth installment of the franchise: director and scribe Drew Goddard is already writing a script.

Goddard has been a prolific contributor to both the sci-fi and action genres in Hollywood over the years. The Oscar nominee wrote the scripts of popular titles like The Martian, Cloverfield and World War Z. In the TV world, Goddard created the Daredevil series for Netflix and established the tone that set up the Disney+ revival Daredevil: Born Again. Goddard also penned several episodes from the hit show Lost. So, chances are that the screenwriter and producer will bring something new to the table on his next directing effort.

Details of The Matrix 5 are currently kept under wraps, and chances are that they will be kept this way until it’s time to go to theaters. That was the approach that Warner Bros. had with The Matrix Resurrections: the fourth entry in the franchise kept its mysterious tone until the last minute. So far, all we have is Goddard‘s name. We still don’t know which cast members Warner Bros. is eyeing for the sequel, but franchise alum Laurence Fishburne already spoke out about under what circumstances he’d consider playing Morpheus again.

Can ‘The Matrix’ Phenomenon Repeat Itself?

The revolution that The Matrix caused in the world of movies and in pop culture is something that only comes along every once in a while. Not by chance, filmmaking sisters Lilly and Lana Wachowski spent years fighting against the idea of making a fourth installment. When The Matrix Resurrections finally came along, the creative decision that Lana took was to make a satire of the movie business and a metalinguistic commentary of the movie itself. Despite not being the hit that everyone expected — and the COVID aftermath didn’t help — the movie still landed a much higher Rotten Tomatoes score than its predecessor: The Matrix Revolutions is the lowest-rated entry in the franchise with 33%.

The first Matrix installment was released in 1999, and two of the biggest aspects that it changed in Hollywood filmmaking were the approach to action stunts — coordinated by the legendary stunt performer Yuen Woo-Ping (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) — and the use of special effects. The numbers reflected its status: the movie franchise made over $1.7 billion worldwide and inspired all sorts of media, from parodies to video games. Before the fourth installment, however, the biggest expansion that the movie franchise got was a series of animated short films called The Animatrix.

The Matrix 5 is yet to get an official title and release date.

via Collider