Lilly Wachowski, co-director of The Matrix trilogy, has confirmed that the popular films were always intended to be an allegory for the trans experience.
"That was the original intention but the world wasn't quite ready," Lilly Wachowski told Netflix, according to
Lilly and her sister/co-director Lana both came out as trans after the films were released, with many trans fans long speculating that the films, which were filmed in Australia, had a hidden meaning.
"I'm glad that it has gotten out," Wachowski continued, explaining that trans people have taken great comfort in the films since they first hit screens in 1999.
"They come up to me and say these movies saved my life," she said.
"I'm grateful I can be throwing them a rope to help them along their journey."
While the news was welcomed by members of the trans community, other non-trans fans of the franchise resisted the idea, claiming it to be 'revisionist'.
However, as Australian actress, comedian and performer Jordan Raskopoulos , the trans experience exists well before it's articulated.
"To all the people saying that The Matrix being a trans metaphor is revisionist. Here’s the thing about being a trans. You feel trans before you transition. You feel trans even if you don’t have the language to articulate your feelings," she wrote.
"The feelings might not be liminal during earlier parts of your life. But once you gain the ability to articulate your experience you notice, in hindsight, that the feelings you have, feelings that go to the very core of your identity, have been ever present."
Raskopoulos added that, "as an artist who is trans, I can look back on my own works and clearly identify works that have been influenced by or are metaphors for my transness."
A fourth Matrix film is currently in the works.
