Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, the guys who gave us John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Hobbs & Shaw, and other killer action flicks, are entering The Matrix. Well, actually they’re re-entering The Matrix, as part of Lana Wachowski’s upcoming sequel.
Some of the earliest work of Stahelski and Leitch’s careers came as stuntmen on The Matrix, and now they’re returning to help out on The Matrix 4. While they won’t be punching up the action sequences as they did on Birds of Prey, the duo will be doing some conceptual stuff for Lana Wachowski, who chooses to shoot her own action sequences.
“It’s definitely, from what I know of it, it’s incredibly fun,” Stahelski told Collider. “I think if you’re a fan of the original trilogy you’re gonna love this. Coming back with a vengeance.”
“It’s more about the creative concept of some of the choreography and backing them up with stuff. Other than the Matrixes, most of their stuff…what makes [Lana] so great is she directs her own action. We’ve had second unit directors on some of the Matrixes just because of the logistics involved. But of late, and especially on Matrix 4, she’s directing her own action. The second units for them are mostly establishing shots, the B-sides of the some of the compositions for some locations. But Lana, she does her own action. She weaves it into the main unit stuff, which is why their stuff looks so good.”
Stahelski added that Wachowski has rehired most of the production crew from the original Matrix movies…
“They were really cool. They asked us to help out with the choreography and some of the physical training for the guys. I’m helping out a little bit for a sequence, I think Dave’s helping out for a sequence. Lana’s come back with a lot of love to have a pseudo-family reunion, so that’s been a lot of fun. It’s been good to see a lot of the crew members again. We just finished doing a sequence in San Francisco before the pandemic started.”
The Matrix 4 is currently scheduled to open on May 21st 2021. Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Lambert Wilson return, joined by new additions Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra, Jessica Henwick, Jonathan Groff, and Toby Onwumere.
