After years of speculation and theories, the co-director of the Matrix trilogy, Lilly Wachowski has finally confirmed that the series is a transgender allegory.
Since the movies often talk about transformation in a science-fiction narrative, the trans community has constantly felt connected to them. And now, there is an official confirmation.
I’m grateful for being a part of throwing them a rope along the journey. I’m glad that it has gotten out, that that was the original intention. But the corporate world wasn’t ready for it.
-Lilly Wachowski
During a Netflix video interview, Lilly confirmed the trans narrative and added that she was glad it resonated with the trans community. Lilly Wachowski and her sister, Lana Wachowski, who created the films came out as trans in 2016 and 2010 respectively. Which automatically reflected in the films as they were creating them.
I don’t know how present my transness was in the background of my brain as we were writing it. It all came from the same sort of fire that I’m talking about….we were always living in a world of imagination. It was all about creating worlds. I think it freed us up as filmmakers because we were able to imagine stuff at that time that you didn’t necessarily see onscreen.
-Lilly Wachowski
Since the film talks about people breaking free from their current identities and forming others which they feel more comfortable with, the parallels drawn make complete sense.
Watch the full interview here:
The sisters’ latest work includes the Netflix series, Sense8 which also focussed extensively on trans and the LGBTQA+ community.