Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss reprising her role as Trinity. The Matrix 4 is in the filming stage, but further story details remain predictably slim at the current time, with production halted due to the recent pandemic. Aside from a selection of returning characters, The Matrix 4 has also cast a slew of more modern big names, suggesting a potential handover from one generation to another, and the start of a whole new trilogy.
One character who probably won't be coming back is Switch, played in the first movie by Belinda McClory. Despite being one of the original Nebuchadnezzar crew, Switch's time in the world of The Matrix is brief. McClory's character one of several to fall at the hands of Cypher when he begins unplugging his former friends in the real world while they're still hooked up to the Matrix, causing permanent death in both realms. Although Switch is female in The Matrix, the Wachowskis' original concept was a female actress (McClory) playing Switch in the Matrix, but a male actor playing the part in the real world. This aspect of the character was reportedly removed at the behest of Warner Bros.
Although this initial, gender-shifting Switch didn't make it into the first Matrix movie, there's certainly scope to resurrect the same idea for The Matrix 4. While the plot of the sequel remains a mystery, there will be plenty of new characters plugging in and out of the Matrix, and any one of them could utilize the gender-switching feature that was conceived by the Wachowskis previously.
Purely from a story perspective, the idea of a character changing their gender every time they enter the Matrix is a fascinating mechanic. The previous trilogy explored in-depth how someone could remodel their entire reality in the Matrix world, from shades and leather coats to being able to fly, and gender-switching represents logical progression, introducing a new shade to the franchise's philosophy. The addition would also continue the original trilogy's debate over whether the Matrix can be more real than the real world. However, there's also a more serious side to The Matrix's gender-switching idea.
Since first directing The Matrix in the late 1990s, both The Matrix by revealing how someone might deal with gender identity struggles when doctors and medicine aren't freely available in Zion.
It's impossible to say whether Warner Bros. nixed the original Switch idea because they felt a gender-changing character would ruffle some conservative feathers, or whether they simply didn't want to confuse viewers by having one character portrayed by 2 different actors. In either case, transgender issues have progressed considerably over the past 20 years, and movie audiences are, generally speaking, more accepting towards LBGT characters than they were back in 1999. Perhaps the silver lining to Warner Bros. changing Switch in the original Matrix movie is that the same idea can be revisited in more depth in The Matrix 4.
