Speed Racer's Christina Ricci returns to the Wachowski-verse for Matrix 4

Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s Speed Racer movie from 2008 will never get a sequel, because nobody in the world wants that to happen (we’re just kidding, don’t get mad), but that shouldn’t stop Lana Wachowski from pulling out some standout members of its cast and inserting them into her new Matrix sequel. Who wouldn’t want to see Susan Sarandon, Scott Porter, Christina Ricci, and John Goodman (and maybe no one else) wearing leather trench coats and waging a war against the machines? Well, we’re out of luck for most of those, but Variety says that Ricci is apparently in The Matrix 4 and nobody thought to mention it.

The news comes from an “updated press kit” from Warner Bros. that included Ricci’s name among previously announced (or actually announced) stars like Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, Neil Patrick Harris, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Priyanka Chopra, and Jonathan Groff. We don’t know much of anything about Matrix 4 (other than potential assumptions one could make about the fact that two characters who died in the original trilogy are coming back), so it’s impossible to make any guesses about who Ricci might be playing, but Variety helpfully points out that “she is known for playing characters that lean toward the unconventional.”

We’re talking about a Matrix movie, though, so that narrows it down… not at all. What would a conventional character be in this context? Someone who isn’t dressed like they’re going to a goth sex club? Someone who isn’t a personification of an abstract computer concept? Or are those things conventional for a Matrix movie, so maybe the unconventional, Ricci-friendly choice would be something like a regular human doctor? We don’t know who she’s playing and we don’t know what the movie is about, but it will be on theaters and on HBO Max on December 22.