‘The Matrix 5’ Confirmed With 1 Key Update From First-Time Franchise Director

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Keanu Reeves as Neo in The Matrix Resurrections

Published Mar 2, 2026, 3:57 PM EST

Shrishty is a decade-old journalist covering a variety of beats between politics to pop culture, but movies are her first love, which led her to study Film and TV Development at UCLAx. She lives and breathes cinema and sometimes wakes up with the close-up shot of Ryan Gosling's hands playing piano in La La Land, in her head.

She has worked with numerous media outlets, including Burda Media (MSN News), DKODING Media, The Voice of Fashion, Hindustan Times, and more. Throughout her career, she has interviewed an array of people, from CEOs and politicians to filmmakers and farmers.

You have entered The Matrix, or at least the long wait for the fifth installment. The Wachowskis’ world-renowned film franchise has had a deep impact on its fans. There are only a handful of movies that shake their audience, make them rethink their entire life, or question the nature of reality itself — with films like Inception, Dark City, or Blade Runner joining The Matrix in the zeitgeist. The Matrix franchise, led by Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, enjoys both a cinematic legacy and a cultural one.

When the first Matrix came out in 1999, it revolutionized the world with concepts like taking the Red Pill and Blue Pill, the phrasing “a glitch in the matrix,” and making its audience think about identity, reality, and free will. One of the best things about the franchise is that it never preaches but makes its audience a part of its mind-bending world. The movies also changed the language of cinema by successfully executing the “bullet time” technique and action choreography that influenced later films like John Wick and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. As for its visual aesthetic, long trench coats and sleek sunglasses set it apart from the rest of the cyberpunk movies.

So when the franchise was finally revived in 2021, with The Matrix: Resurrections, fans’ expectations knew no bounds. The fanfare was high, and with the return of legacy stars like Reeves and Moss, the audience was ready to get their minds blown. However, it opened to mixed reviews, with fans either applauding the movie's meta-commentary or completely rejecting it as a lacklustre follow-up. As a result, the 63% Rotten Tomatoes-rated film became a box-office bomb, earning $160.2 million worldwide and even failing to recover its budget. But that didn’t stop Warner Bros from announcing a fifth installment.

‘The Matrix 5’ Is Still Being Written

The Matrix 5 was announced in 2024 with Daredevil creator Drew Goddard serving as writer and director. Goddard is well known for writing sci-fi and action films like The Martian, Cloverfield, and World War Z. So the news of him working on the next Matrix Installment sounded just right. However, we haven’t had any more updates since. But Goddard recently confirmed to ScreenRant that the fifth installment is "still in the works.” He added cautiously, “I'm in my writing cave writing. I don't know how long I'll be in that writing cave, but whenever I come out, I'll have news to share."

Meanwhile, you can check out The Matrix franchise on HBO Max. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates on the future installment.