The groundbreaking blockbuster The Matrix has spawned numerous theories and interpretations about its characters and themes, 21 years after its release. Among them was the suggestion that there was an implicit trans narrative, especially after both its directors, Lilly and Lana Wachowski, came out as trans—Lana in 2010, Lilly in 2016.

The latter has now confirmed the allegory in a new interaction with Netflix. Lilly is glad that people are talking about the Matrix movies with a trans narrative. “I love how meaningful those films are to trans people, in the way that they come up to me and say, ‘These movies saved my life.

 Because when you talk about transformation specifically in the world of science fiction which is about imagination and world-building, and the idea of the seemingly impossible becoming possible, I think that’s why it speaks to them so much.” Sharing that The Matrix was about “the desire for transformation but coming from a closeted point of view”, she said the character Switch from the first film was originally written as a woman in the Matrix but a man in the real world.

Lilly is currently writing and directing the much-anticipated fourth Matrix, which has Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Ann Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith and Lambert Wilson reprising their roles from the original trilogy. 
The new additions to the cast include Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra, and Jonathan Groff among others.