Editor's note: The below interview contains spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections.

While you might know James McTeigue’s name as the director of V for Vendetta, The Raven, or Ninja Assassin, what you might not realize is his close connection with the Wachowski’s. That’s because over the past two decades, he was the first assistant director on The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions, and he produced Lana Wachowski’s newest sequel, The Matrix Resurrections. In addition, he worked on Speed Racer as the second unit director and directed episodes of the Wachowski’s Sense8.

With The Matrix Resurrections now playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, I recently got to speak with McTeigue about making the highly anticipated sequel. During the wide-ranging conversation, he talked about when he first heard that Lana Wachowski was going to make the sequel, his reaction to the meta stuff in the script, how WB was developing another Matrix sequel without the Wachowski’s, how close Hugo Weaving came to being Agent Smith in Resurrections, how Lana has changed as a director, Easter eggs, and more. In addition, McTeigue talks about how The Matrix Awakens: Unreal Engine 5 Experience happened and trying to pull off "bullet time" in the first film.

Finally, if you’ve seen The Matrix Resurrections, you know the film ends in a way that Wachowski and Warner Bros. could easily continue the story, or this could be the end. So, during my interview I asked McTeigue if they had any plans for more. He said:

“We've got no prequel in mind. We've got no sequel in mind. We've got no further trilogy.”

Read what McTeigue had to say below, which includes more quotes on the ending.

COLLIDER: I like throwing a curve ball at the beginning. If you could get the financing to make anything you want, what would you make and why?

JAMES MCTEIGUE: Anything I want and why. Well, you know what? I'll pass on the curve ball. I'll think about it for a minute. Keep asking you other questions. I'll come back to you.

Sounds like a plan. You were one of the few people to work on all the Matrix movies. When you think about all the films, including the new one, which was the sequence or shot that you're like, "How the hell are we going to do this one?"

MCTEIGUE: I think, from the first movie, I know when I picked up the script and I read the script for the first time, I got to the end of it and I went, "Oh my God. What? What was that?" So I went back and read it immediately.

Then there was some sequences in there ... Because in the script, it mentioned bullet time, which was one sequence. I'm like, "Okay. What's the technology? How do we shoot that?" because... It's hard to remember back then, but digital effects were still in a nascent phase. It was very rudimentary, very basic. We were really pushing at the boundaries of some of that.

So it was probably the first bullet time moment that we did. Then once we started to develop that with John Gaeta, and then the methodology started to form into place... It was complicated, really, really complicated to do. But that was probably the sequence, the bullet time sequence.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Jessica Henwick The Matrix Resurrections
Image via WB

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When did you actually first hear from Lana that she was interested in doing a new Matrix movie?

MCTEIGUE: She called me up and said she had this idea that came to her fully formed. There was an event in her life that made her feel like she wanted to be connected to the Trinity and Neo characters again. So she rang us up and said, "Hey, this is what I'm thinking. Here's the story. What do you think? Are you interested? Are you going to come back? Will you come back and do it?" I said yeah. That feels like it was about three years ago now, two and half, three years ago.

One of my favorite parts of the entire new movie is the debate on screen about whether or not to make a sequel. All the meta stuff in the movie, I think it's so brilliant. Can you talk a little bit about that, and what your reaction was when you read all that dialog in that sequence?

MCTEIGUE: Well, when I read it, I hopefully had the same reaction as you, which was, I thought it was really funny. The kernel from which that came was from people telling Lana what they thought the Matrix was for 20 years. Once we get into the brainstorming group, where they're all going, "No. The Matrix is this," "The Matrix is that."

Then in the boss's office, when we talk about Warner Brothers, and they're going to make another sequel, all that meta stuff that you said, that was just us having a bit of fun with what everyone's opinion of the Matrix is, whilst in the middle of what the filmmaker who invented the Matrix actually thinks the Matrix is.

Because I'm not going to get to talk to Lana, and I've been very curious about this, do you think that Warner Brothers, because I know they've asked her repeatedly to do another Matrix movie, do you think they were going to move forward on another Matrix movie with or without Lana? How close did they come to saying, "If you don't want to do it, we're just going to make one"?

MCTEIGUE: Look. I think when you've had a franchise with that much potential money making capability, there's always talk. It's in the same way that the Marvel universe repeats and turns in on itself, or you have Spider-Man, or you have Iron Man, or Thor. There's always a potential to update those movies just because of the possibility of making the money and telling new stories. I shouldn't say it's just a purely fiscal thought.

But yeah, look, there was versions out there, but they hadn't landed on the right version. So when Lana eventually came back around and said, "Look. I'm interested in making another movie," of course, they went with the filmmaker who was the genesis of the Matrix.

Lana Wachowski The Matrix Resurrections
Image via WB

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Because for a few years before Lana said she was going to make it, there was a lot of talk about people working on different versions of Matrix scripts. So, I got the vibe that they were getting ready to move forward on something, with or without Lana. But I'm happy that Lana came back.

MCTEIGUE: Yeah. That was real. There were versions out there. But I guess the fates dictated that Lana's story came at the right time, and Warner Brothers were willing to move forward with that story.

I read that Hugo Weaving was in consideration to come back for Agent Smith, but it was a scheduling thing. How close did he come to actually being back in this movie?

MCTEIGUE: There was always the Smith character in there. Hugo is a friend of both of ours of long standing. If we had a way of getting Hugo into the movie, we would have. But it didn't work out. That's just what happens in show making sometimes. Schedules can't work out. COVID was another curve ball in the middle of it, obviously. It was a little more complicated than usual.

I was wondering, if COVID had not happened, if they could have worked around his schedule or you guys could have worked around it.

MCTEIGUE: Yeah, COVID is a constant bug bear, I'd have to say.

I've heard it from everybody. Was the title always The Matrix Resurrections?

MCTEIGUE: Yes.

From day one, when you read the script, that was the title?

MCTEIGUE: That was the title.

The Matrix Resurrections Keanu Reeves and Neil Patrick Harris
Image via WB

I'm fascinated by the editing process, and obviously, again, I won't be talking to Lana, but can you talk about editing the movie? How involved were you in the editing room?

MCTEIGUE: Well, I'm in there every day. We do all that together. It's me and Lana and Jett Sally, who's our editor. This is what I would say. The first three films were, you could read the script and hold the storyboards up, and at the end of it, you would have a finished movie. That was the process. In those intervening nearly 20 years, the personalities and the filmmaking and the way we make films is a lot more improvisational.

But the script is always the anchor of the movie. Pretty much what you see on the screen is the script. There's not much variation from the script to the final film. The actors aren't coming in and improvising, or anything like that. It's all very straightforward.

So once we get into editorial, it's about making correct choices with the characters, and the dialogues, and the performances, and what take is best, and laying in the visual effects. There's always room for it to move, but the process stays very close to the script.

I was just curious if you guys had a much longer cut of the movie, or if you had a lot of deleted scenes, stuff like that.

MCTEIGUE: There are always scenes that don't make it. There's always the babies that get killed. But I think that's just a natural part of it. Once you start watching the movie, once you do your first assembly, you really start to see what works and what doesn't work, and what scenes that you need and don't need. But there's not very many, to tell you the truth.

So you guys didn't have a version that was 30 minutes longer?

MCTEIGUE: No. Well, that's hard to say. Your director's cut always has everything in it. But you know as you're shooting it, as you're doing it, that you'll probably go, "Oh, well, I'm probably not going to need that scene, but I might need that scene if I cut this other scene." So there's always this constant shuffling around in your head.

But I think we're also coming off the back of we did two seasons of Sense8, and I go off and do my other movies. So I think we're always looking for ways to streamlining the process. So it was pretty streamlined this time, I'd have to say.

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Image via Warner Bros.

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Are there any Easter eggs that I should look out for the next time I see the movie?

MCTEIGUE: Yes. Look at the screens when we first come into the Neo office.

Okay. I will definitely do it.

MCTEIGUE: I should say the Thomas Anderson's office, the first time you see Thomas Anderson.

With the ending of this movie, obviously makes it that you can leave it alone, and this is the end of the Matrix. Or of course, the story can continue. Has Lana said anything, or have you talked about the fact that it could go on, or do you think that this is the one and done?

MCTEIGUE: Look, for us, I think, at the moment, it's just the movie you've seen. We've got no prequel in mind. We've got no sequel in mind. We've got no further trilogy.

But I think the film also works where it's really open to audience interpretation, like what happened in those 60 years before they fished Neo out again, or Thomas Anderson to Neo. When Neo and Trinity are there at the end, and they're talking with the analyst, what do they actually mean that they're going to change? So I think that it's out there, but it's not in our wheelhouse at the moment.

I completely understand. Also, it comes down to how does the movie do. Is it a financially beneficial thing for Warner Brothers to continue, et cetera.

MCTEIGUE: Yeah. Yes. Always. There's always the financial part of it. There's always the filmmakers who want to make the films, and there's always the studios or the streamers who have the money to facilitate that. So yeah. It's always a business equation as much as it is a creative equation.

Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne Moss The Matrix: Resurrections
Image via WB

I'm going to apologize and say that I have not played The Matrix Awakens: Unreal Engine 5 Experience yet, but I am absolutely going to do it. How did that actually come together? How early on had you guys been working on it?

MCTEIGUE: Well, a few of the Matrix alumni guys over at Epic Games, Kim Libreri ... We still have a really nice relationship with Kim. Donald at Epic is now a friend. John Gaeta was involved in it as well, one of the originators of the whole bullet time thing. Then Kim was with us for the second and third movies.

We thought it would be fun to get back together. I think part of our MO usually is to just work with people that we like and we've had relationships in the past. Keanu was really interested in it and Carrie-Anne, and a big part of that was just getting together with those guys and doing something fun, because they're really the leaders in technology with the Unreal Engine. I don't know if you've seen it yet, but it was fun to see what a completely digital Keanu Reeves Neo, Carrie-Anne Trinity avatars could look like.

If someone were to actually sit down and do it, how much time is it to, I don't want to say complete it, but have the full experience?

MCTEIGUE: To complete what just got released?

The Matrix Awakens, the experience.

MCTEIGUE: Even I don't know that. You'd probably have to ask one of those guys over at Epic Games what that is.

So...if you could get the financing to make something, what would you make?

MCTEIGUE: That is the super hard question, actually.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II The Matrix Resurrections
Image via WB

When I speak to filmmakers, sometimes they just have a script they've been trying to get made for a really long time. That's what they usually talk about.

MCTEIGUE: Well, actually the one that actually really stuck in my craw for a long time was Killing on Carnival Row. I was going to do that as a film for a long time, and then sort of went away, and other filmmakers got attached to it. Guillermo del Toro was attached to it for a while, and then they eventually made a series of it.

But I think it really stood alone as a film. I'm not sure it was really served by making that into a series. That was one of the films that really stuck in my craw for a long time. I think the script, which was originally written by Travis Beacham, I believe, was really great, really tight. The characters were really good.

I don't know. In the way that sometimes a series enlivens more discussion about making a film and vice versa, maybe that might come around one time.

I'm just going to say thank you so much for giving me your time. Great talking with you after 10 years.

MCTEIGUE: Nice to speak to you again.