https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8399919/Keanu-Reeves-reveals-agreed-Matrix-4-Lana-Wachowski-wrote-beautiful-script.html

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/matrix-4-moving-2022-1234633641/

https://deadline.com/2020/06/matrix-4-godzilla-vs-king-release-date-changes-1202958388/

https://collider.com/matrix-sequels-what-went-wrong-bill-pope/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SOUYHyWiYY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bwoaW9a_JQ

https://screenrant.com/matrix-ending-meaning-wachowskis-explain-path-neo-boss/
... this gives new meaning to 'the problem is choice' :|

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/neil-patrick-harris-teases-the-matrix-4

https://www.indiewire.com/2020/10/matrix-4-jessica-henwick-industry-changing-tech-work-1234592307/

https://bleedingcool.com/movies/the-matrix-4-another-industry-changing-film-says-jessica-henwick/

https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2558408/matrix-4-star-recalls-getting-to-watch-keanu-reeves-deliver-lines-as-neo-for-the-first-time

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8945975/The-Matrix-4-cast-flout-Berlins-party-ban-stage-celebration-scene.html

https://screenrant.com/matrix-4-logo-white-original-movies-black-change/

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II may be starring in the fourth “Matrix” movie, but don’t ask him to explain what the franchise is about. “No one understands the Matrix except for Keanu Reeves and Lana Wachowski,” Abdul-Mateen tells me. So how did the actor approach his work? “You learn to find meaning, and then you go test it out,” he says. “If no one says anything, then you just trust that you ended up doing the right thing.” The “Matrix” audition wasn’t as intense as one might assume. “It was maybe two days,” Abdul-Mateen recalls. “Lana and I did more conversing than we did acting in that audition because she’s building a family.”
He was in a New York hotel room for work when Wachowski called him on FaceTime. “She said, ‘I would love to invite you to the family,’” Abdul-Mateen says. “I had the biggest smile in the world, because I’m going to be in the ‘Matrix.’ I was on top of the world, man.”

https://deadline.com/2021/08/matrix-4-trailer-unveiled-during-warner-bros-cinemacon-reel-1234821127/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/matrix-4-batman-dune-warner-bros-1235002600/

https://screenrant.com/matrix-4-resurrections-red-pill-move-past-how/

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/matrix-4-resurrections-first-look-website-1235057937/
mmmmmm... this looks good

While speaking on a panel for the Berlin International Literature Festival, Lana Wachowski was asked about how perceptions have changed. To answer the question, she revealed Reeves' reaction to seeing the finished version of The Matrix Resurrections, saying, "he really was blown away by it." However, the deeper answer she was pulling came from what she referred to as Reeves' "casual brilliance." After seeing the film, Reeves said the original Matrix was able to see the coming problems of virtual life over the next 20 years, and now, The Matrix Resurrections is able to do the same for the next 20 years. Check out Wachowski's comments on Reeves' reaction below:

"We showed the film to Keanu, and he really was blown away by it, and he said something that was typically Keanu, where it's incredibly insightful. And he's just sort of sitting there, and you don't expect some incredible revelation to come out of him at that moment, but he-like casual brilliance just kind of rolls off of Keanu, and he was just sitting there, and he goes, 'Twenty years ago you told a story in which you described the coming twenty years and the problems of the nature of digital, virtual life and how it was going to impact us and how we think about it, and gave us a frame to be able to think about it and talk about it. And you took the same character and the same stories and the same stuff, and somehow you made it about the next twenty years.' And he was like, 'How did you do that?'”

https://screenrant.com/matrix-4-resurrections-look-different-not-green-reason/

I’m not sure that the Deus Ex Machina is “evil” - it’s simply a self-perpetuating, self-protecting system - as are all systems.

Is there a consciousness (as the Metaverse has) that has an agenda beyond self-preservation - for infinite, invasive growth? Is it a “virus”? What does that say about humanity? Are Neo and Trinity back to remind us of unity? Just a thought.

And RTFLMAO to “not expecting random brilliance” from Keanu, one of the most thoughtful persons I’ve ever encountered.

Madonna in The Matrix
Madonna has never been one for regrets, instead admirably sticking by creative decisions even if they get her jeered at, laughed at or criticised. But she did fess up to one movie role she shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss. “I turned down the role in The Matrix,” she told Jimmy Fallon during a TV appearance this year. “Can you believe that? I wanna kill myself. That’s, like, one of the best movies ever made. A teeny-tiny part of me regrets just that one moment in my life.”
Madonna didn’t confirm which role she turned down in the 1999 film, but presumably it was the female lead Trinity, who was ultimately played by Carrie-Anne Moss. During the same interview, Madonna also confirmed rumours that she turned down the role of Catwoman in Batman Returns, and Nomi Malone in the notorious Showgirls. “I saw them both, and I regret that I turned down Catwoman, that was pretty fierce. Showgirls? No.”

Brad Pitt in The Matrix
Speaking of The Matrix, Brad Pitt has also expressed regret about turning down the role of Neo. “I took the red pill,” he joked in 2020, referencing the choice in the film between having total clarity or remaining in blissful ignorance. “I come from a place, maybe it’s my upbringing, [where] if I didn’t get it, then it wasn’t mine. I really believe [the role] was never mine. It was someone else’s.”

Will Smith in The Matrix
And just to drive home the fact that very few actors seemed to any faith in The Matrix, Will Smith also turned down the starring role. In 2019, Smith confirmed a long-standing rumour that he rejected the Neo part in favour of a far less adored movie.
On his YouTube channel, Smith recalled meeting directors Lana and Lily Wachowski but struggling to understand their ideas for bullet-time, or the slow-motion effect that Neo masters in the movie.
“So I made Wild Wild West [instead],” Smith confessed, referencing the notorious 1999 flop that he has spent more than 20 years regretting. “I’m not proud of it.”
He did, however, argue that he wouldn’t have been as good in the role as Reeves. “Keanu was perfect, Laurence Fishburne was perfect, so I probably would have messed The Matrix up. I would have ruined it, so I did y’all a favour.”