With its ‘red pill’ imagery co-opted by incels, how nice that Lana Wachowski, a trans woman, could give the original a sequel it deservesOf the 10 highest-grossing films of 2019, only one – Jordan Peele’s Us – isn’t part of a franchise. Few jaws will have hit the floor, then, at the wholly un-flabbergasting news that sci-fi punch-’em-up The Matrix is to return next year with a fourth instalment. The original trilogy’s co-creator Lana Wachowski will co-write and direct, and both Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are set to re-stretch their leather trousers, despite the inconvenient matter of both of their characters being dead. All of this, in case you were wondering, is very good news.
Pub bores will already be licking the tips of their quills and drafting some dreadful soporific diatribe about how endless sequels and reboots are yet more proof that society is going down the Armitage Shanks. But Avengers: Endgame isn’t the most successful film ever solely because it’s a sequel. It’s the most successful film ever because it’s brilliant.