The Matrix

This article is about the cyberpunk film franchise by Wachowski Sisters. For other uses of the term, see Matrix.

Fandom
Name:	The Matrix
Abbreviation(s):
Creator:
Date(s):	March 31, 1999 May 15, 2003 November 5, 2003 December 22, 2021
Medium:	Movies
Country of Origin:	United States
External Links:
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The Matrix is a cyberpunk action movie franchise created by Wachowski sisters, including three movies, The Matrix (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), and The Matrix Revolutions (2003). The fandom exploded after the first movie came out. Fanworks exploring trans themes are common in the fandom, both because the sisters who created the project are trans, and because they have already mentioned that the film is an allegory about transgender lifes.

Rumors of reboots or prequels abounded during the 2010s, and in 2019, a sequel, The Matrix Resurrections was announced. It premiered on December 22, 2021. This created a renewal of interest in the fandom.

The Matrix fandom often focuses on the canon Neo/Trinity ship. The movie's worldbuilding is also frequently used as a crossover or fusion/pastiche universe for fanworks in other fandoms.

Canon

Hugo Weaving, who played the main villain, went on to play Elrond in The Lord of the Rings two years later, causing great cognitive dissonance in many viewers. Before The Matrix, he had not been well known outside Australia, except to fans of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a comedy about Australian drag queens.

Matrix Resurrections (2021)

After a long period of inactivity following the release of the third film in 2003, fannish interest was re-kindled along with a resurgence of fan theories with the release of a trailer for a fourth film, The Matrix Resurrections in early September 2021. The trailer featured Trinity and Neo reuniting--seemingly for the first time--in a coffee shop, spawning a number of Coffee Shop AUs exploring this plot point in advance of the film's release. Another clip depicting Neo in a bubblebath with a rubber duck on his head became a popular subject of memes and fanart.

Did you ever get really, really invested in the love between two characters when you were, oh, 11, 12 years old, and then when you saw them both die at the cinema, you went home and you held your sister and you wept together all night? And even though you’ve processed it since then, it still hurts to think about?

And then, 18 years later, you get a trailer for another instalment to their story that seemingly brings them back to life, and opens the door to a possibility that they might live happily ever after?? After all this time?!?! SOMETHING YOU HAD PREVIOUSLY NEVER ALLOWED YOURSELF TO THINK ABOUT?!

Anyway, how are you all doing?!?!!?!

Fandom

Shipping

Prominent pairings include:

• Neo/Trinity (AO3 tag): the canon pairing is the most used pairing tag for the fandom on AO3
• Switch/Apoc (AO3 tag): canon rarepair
• Smith/Neo (AO3 tag)
• Neo/Morpheus (AO3 tag)

Tropes

Common tropes included examining the backstory and motivations for the character Cypher, creating crossovers or original characters to go through a similar introduction to the "Real World" like Neo did in the first movie, and exploring the milieu. Other fanworks place the characters in 'No Matrix' Mundane AUs.

Lana and Lilly Wachowski, the directors of the Matrix movies, are both trans women, and have encouraged transgender readings of their work. As such, transfic is common in the fandom.

Following the release of the John Wick series, another set of action films starring Keanu Reeves, same-actor crossovers and same-actor fusions between the two became popular.

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

Matrix Canon

• Collateral Damage by nanda. Neo/Trinity, 2001
• Interlude by oxymoronic. Neo/Agent Smith, 2009
• I See With My Eyes by Suaine. Trans OC, written for Yuletide 2011
• The First Fall (part of the First Snow Collection) by x_art. Neo/Morpheus, 2012
• A Different Point of View by Trin303. Neo/Trinity Outside POV story, 2020
• keep whatever it is (that's compelling you on) by archetypically. Coffee Shop reunion AU inspired by the Resurrections trailer, 2021

Matrix Fusions

• In the Region of Sight by thatworldinverted, a Sherlock crossover (2013): In which John has his world turned upside down, right side up, and upside down again, Sherlock wears a lot of vinyl, and they just might save humanity.
• The Man Who Hacked The Universe by BC_Brynn, a MCU crossover (2014): Steve Rogers is offered the choice between the red pill and the blue pill.
• Do Robots Dream of First Degree Murder? by HungryCanadian, crossover with The 100 (2021): Raven Reyes is a mechanic and operator aboard the Ark, and little does she know, and despite her best attempts to ignore the words of the Oracle, she might just hold the key to humanity's survival.

Doujinshi

• Free Your Mind #1-2

Podfic

• I See With My Eyes (podfic) by susan_voight (Original trans character, 2013)
• (Podfic) Lotrix by TheQuietWings (Lotr/Matrix crossover, 2021)
• Podfic: 'Simple Signs' by Merfilly by peasina (The Oracle gen, 2021)

Vids

• She's a Rebel by kaydeefalls, 2011
• The Price by thingswithwings, 2011
• Juke Joint Jezebel by theleterelle, 2019

Meta

• There's nowhere I can't go, there's nowhere I won't find you. by jjtaylor, a Smith/Neo essay at ship_manifesto (Oct 2004)
• I've Spent My Entire Life Looking For You by jjtaylor, a Neo/Morpheus essay at ship_manifesto (Oct 2004)

Sites & Communities

• Matrix 101
• Matrix Resolutions
• Anom*a*ly

LiveJournal

• matrix_theory
• neo and trin (Neo/Trin)

External Links

• The Matrix (Movies) at Archive of Our Own
• Alternate Universe - The Matrix Fusion AO3 tag
• Matrix at FanFiction.Net
• The Matrix tag on Tumblr
• the-matrix tag at crack_van
• Production script of the first film with Hugo Weaving's notes, scanned by owner and longtime Matrix fan Mae Catt specifically to share with the fandom.