Tell me, Mr. Weaving: What good is a Google Calendar … if you’re unable to reprise your iconic role?
Hugo Weaving, the “Matrix” franchise’s sneering, implacable villain Agent Smith has announced he won’t be returning for the film’s fourth iteration due to scheduling conflicts with an upcoming theater role.
The 59-year-old actor is set to star in the National Theatre’s production of “The Visit,” while production for the “Matrix” reprisal was scheduled to begin early this year.
“I had this offer [for ‘The Visit’], and then the offer came from ‘The Matrix,’ so I knew it was happening, but I didn’t have dates,” Weaving tells TimeOut London.
“I thought [I] could do both, and it took eight weeks to work out that the dates would work. I held off on accepting [a role in “The Visit” during that time],” Weaving says. “I was in touch with [director] Lana Wachowski, but in the end, she decided that the dates weren’t going to work. So we’d sorted the dates and then she sort of changed her mind. They’re pushing on ahead without me.”
It’s a distressing turn for the as-yet-untitled fourth film in the franchise — the second and third were “Reloaded” and “Revolutions,” respectively. Maybe number four will be “Restitutions?” — which boasts the return of Keanu Reeves as Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity. Also, Neil Patrick Harris will be there.
“Many of the ideas [my sister] Lilly [Wachowski] and I explored 20 years ago about our reality are even more relevant now,” writer and director Wachowski tells Variety. “I’m very happy to have these characters back in my life and grateful for another chance to work with my brilliant friends.”
Co-creator/writer/director Lilly is also not involved with the fourth film, nor is Laurence Fishburne, as Reeves’ dourly intoning mentor Morpheus. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, star of HBO’s “Watchmen,” has been confirmed for the project — possibly as a younger version of Fishburne’s character.