After The Matrix director Lilly Wachowski verified the long-held theory that the film is an allegory for the trans experience, Netflix has broken down its queer themes in a powerful Twitter thread.
Lilly Wachowski – who wrote and directed the Matrix trilogy with her sister Lana, before either had come out as trans – confirmed it was the duo’s “original intention” for the film to be read as a trans narrative.
“The Matrix was all about the desire for transformation, but it was all coming from a closeted point of view,” she told Netflix in an interview for its Film Club YouTube series. “I love how meaningful those films are to trans people and the way that they come up to me say: ‘Those movies saved my life.’ Because when you talk about transformation, specifically in the world of science fiction, which is just about imagination and world-building and the idea of the seemingly impossible becoming possible, that’s why it speaks it to them so much. And I’m grateful I can be a part of throwing them a rope along their journey.”