Life

Lilly Wachowski says “The Matrix” is a transgender allegory

Lilly Wachowski
Lilly Wachowski Photo: Screenshot/YouTube

One of the creators of the 1999 film The Matrix has confirmed that the film is a transgender story that “the corporate world… wasn’t ready for.”

Lilly and Lana Wachowski wrote and directed the Academy Award-winning film, and in the years since its release both of them transitioned. The movie has come to be seen as a transgender allegory, with fans pointing out that the main character experiences a dysphoria with his world, realizes his true identity, takes on a new name, changes his physical body….

Related: Lilly Wachowski tells Ivanka Trump & Elon Musk “F**k both of you” after Matrix “red pill” tweets

And there’s also the famous “red pill,” long theorized to be a reference to some estrogen pills in the 90s, which were red.

Twenty years after the film’s release, co-creator Lilly Wachowski talked about it in a video for the Netflix Film Club channel on YouTube.

“I’m glad that it’s gotten out that [the transgender allegory] was the original intention,” Wachowski said.

She said that The Matrix “was all about the desire for transformation, but it was all coming from a closeted point of view.”

She confirmed that the character of Switch was originally “a man in the real world and then a woman in the matrix,” something that was changed when making the film.

“That’s where our head spaces were,” she said.

Wachowski added that she and her sister didn’t really have the language to articulate their identities when they were making the film, but that being transgender drew them to science fiction so that they “were always living in a world of imagination.”

Don't forget to share:

Good News is your section for queer joy! Subscribe to our newsletter to get the most positive and fun stories from the site delivered to your inbox every weekend. Send us your suggestions for uplifiting and inspiring stories.


Support vital LGBTQ+ journalism

Reader contributions help keep LGBTQ Nation free, so that queer people get the news they need, with stories that mainstream media often leaves out. Can you contribute today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated

Statue of white supremacist will be replaced with one of man who said AIDS is God’s punishment

Previous article

#beautifullybisexual is trending on Twitter & the tweets are, well… beautiful

Next article