Warner Bros. will continue The Matrix franchise with the fourth installment from director Lana Wachowski. However, The Matrix 4 will be the first entry in the film series not to feature Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith and the actor opened up about the reason why Wachowski decided to cut him from the script.
Filming on The Matrix 4 resumed in August following a five-month hiatus prompted by Warner Bros.' decision to shut down production as part of the global effort to contain COVID-19. The newest chapter of The Matrix story will see Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss reprise their respective roles as Neo and Trinity along with Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe and Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian. While director Lana Wachowski, who co-wrote the script with Aleksander Hemon and David Mitchell, had contacted Hugo Weaving about returning to the franchise as well, scheduling conflicts eventually led to Agent Smith being cut from The Matrix 4 before production started.
During an interview with Comingsoon.net, Weaving confirmed there was a script reading with himself, Reeves, Moss, and other members of The Matrix family. Despite having mixed reactions to the script, Weaving ultimately accepted the offer to reprise his role as Agent Smith. "I loved a lot of it and wasn’t sure about other bits. Ultimately, we talked about it and when the offer came through to do it for Warner’s I said yes the next day and I talked to Lana," Weaving recounted.
However, negotiations eventually fell through after Weaving's commitment to the National Theatre in London from November to April conflicted with Wachowski's wishes for him to film his scenes from February until May. "I thought we could have done my scenes in May, June, and July; and we talked about money and we talked about — they were negotiating. And we were all pretty much sorted and agreed on dates and it was all fine, but then Lana decided she didn’t think it was going to work. So, she pulled the plug on the negotiations. That’s where it ended up. She basically didn’t feel that my commitment to the National Theatre was going to fit in with the dates that she had in mind for me," Weaving explained. Despite being cut from The Matrix 4, Hugo Weaving added that he is still eager to see the film, saying, "it would be lovely to be over there to hang out with them all. I’m very fond of Keanu and Carrie. I haven’t seen them for a while. But I look forward to seeing it."
Hugo Weaving is not the only Matrix alumn to be sitting out of the fourth installment. Laurence Fishburne, who portrayed Morpheus in the previous three films and video games, confirmed he wasn't asked back for the newest film but expressed his gratitude for being given the chance to play the character when the original debuted.
Nonetheless, there are already unconfirmed theories on how characters like Agent Smith and Morpheus could return in Matrix 4 even without the actors who originated the roles. Among the more popular is the possibility of new cast member Jonathan Groff playing a young Agent Smith.
The Matrix 4 is scheduled to be released in theaters on April 1, 2022.
Source: Comingsoon.net