Writer Zak Penn is still working on expanding the Matrix franchise

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

It's been a year since we heard that Warner Bros. was looking into the potential of expanding the world of THE MATRIX in a way similar to how Disney is approaching the STAR WARS property, further exploring the universe established in the initial trilogy, and the characters that inhabited it, with prequels and side stories. For example, one option that was being bounced around at the time was a Morpheus prequel starring Michael B. Jordan (and after his prominent role in the billion dollar hit BLACK PANTHER, that idea is probably seeming even more enticing to them).

Zak Penn was working on a treatment for a new MATRIX film at the time, but there hasn't been any progress updates since then. Penn is currently doing press for the new Steven Spielberg film READY PLAYER ONE, which he wrote, working from the novel by Ernest Cline. During a recent interview with Screen Rant, Penn confirmed that he is still doing his part in the effort to bring the world of THE MATRIX back to the screen.

I’ve been working on Matrix right now. Which is in… a phase right now. That’s a franchise I desperately want to see brought back and, I can’t go in to too much detail, but I’ve been harassing Warner Bros. for years to try to get it going again so that’s one thing I’m working on and I’ve been working on a bunch of other things too.

… I just think that universe is brilliant, I think (READY PLAYER ONE's VR world) OASIS is like the action-comedy version of that and it doesn’t always have to be the same characters, you could go in so many different directions, so…"

So the work continues, but it sounds like any new MATRIX movies are still off in the distance.