If you haven’t thought about the upcoming fourth Matrix film in a while, here’s a very good reason to do so: Christina Ricci has joined the cast. There was no big announcement about this, but outlets who received an updated press kit for the film noticed her name quietly added to the list of the film’s stars.
The fourth Matrix film was announced in 2019, but details remain scarce. Lana Wachowski is directing the film; she co-wrote the screenplay with novelists Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell (whose Cloud Atlas the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer adapted in 2012). Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen) and Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist) join Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss as leads, but next to nothing is known about their characters. Abdul-Mateen might be playing a young Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne is not in the film). Henwick might be playing a Neo-like character. Maybe.
Christina Ricci previously worked with Lana Wachowski (and her sister Lilly) on 2008’s Speed Racer (above), playing Trixie, the girlfriend of Emile Hirsch’s Speed. She’s made consistently interesting choices since her breakout roles in the two Addams Family movies, including playing both Lizzie Borden and Zelda Fitzgerald on TV, but few of those choices have included blockbuster movies. Christina Ricci, action star? Yes, please.
Ricci joins Reeves, Moss, Abdul-Mateen, Henwick, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Jada Pinkett Smith and many more in The Matrix 4, which is set for a December 22nd release.
