From the very first, the Wachowskis—who wrote and directed The Matrix—envisioned their project as a trilogy, with the fate of the second and third installments hinging on the success of the first. Needless to say, the then-record-breaking performance of The Matrix made it a no-brainer for Warner Bros. to go ahead with The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, which they filmed simultaneously for release in 2003.

But unlike other franchises, e.g. the superhero films for which their comic-book source material supplies a never-ending slate of new storylines, The Matrix was not written with an infinite succession of movies in mind. As recently as 2016, producer Joel Silver negged the possibility of a fourth Matrix, saying, "That was very seriously designed as three stories and that was it"—although he did throw a bone to hopeful fans by adding, "but we'll see what happens." Still, the door appears to be fully closed on continuing the existing Matrix storyline; at this point, the best hopes of seeing the franchise make a comeback are in the form of either a prequel series a la Star Wars, or a total reboot with an all-new cast.