Warner Bros. Studios released the information today that filming of the fourth installment of The Matrix saga has been halted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Production officially began on February 4, 2020, in San Francisco, and later moved to shooting in Berlin, but with the growing panic due to COVID-19, The Matrix 4 has joined the growing list of films whose development has been hindered by the disease. There have been no reports of illness on the parts of the cast or crew at this time.
Prior to the pause in production, former Matrix leads Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss were announced to be reprising their roles as Neo and Trinity, respectively. Also set to star in the film are Jada Pinkett Smith, Lambert Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, and Jessica Henwick, among others. Lana Wachowski is credited as director (her sister and co-director Lilly Wachowski being occupied with another project), and she, Aleksander Hemon, and David Mitchell are the screenwriters on the project.
In addition to The Matrix 4, Warner Bros. has also paused production on The Batman (starring Robert Pattinson), the third Fantastic Beasts film, King Richard (a biopic on sister tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams and their father Richard), and Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis (which stars Tom Hanks, who was recently diagnosed with coronavirus, as Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker).
The film’s theatrical release is currently due May 21, 2021. Whether this date will be pushed back due to the delay in filming is unclear at the moment.