Lilly Wachowski Reveals Why Hollywood Hasn’t Made Her New Movie
The Matrix director says studios love “The Hunted”—they just don’t want to make it because of its “wall-to-wall trans cast.”
With a resume that includes The Matrix, Bound, and V for Vendetta, one might assume that Lilly Wachowski would have a blank check from the movie studios. But the trans director says her latest film, The Hunted, has stalled out for one very transphobic reason.
“People like it, but they really don’t want to make it because it’s [got a] wall-to-wall trans cast,” Wachowski told KCRW’s The Business podcast. “I have to get creative and figure out different ways that I can get this in front of people.” The film was in a late stage of pre-production with a team that includes Natasha Lyonne, but she hasn’t been able to secure the $10 million budget.
Wachowski, who is currently in development on the film—co-written with her partner Mickey Ray Mahoney—opted to take the film to the people in a different format: a live table read at Los Angeles’ Dynasty Typewriter theater, which was performed earlier this month.
The film is a dystopian thriller, à la V for Vendetta, set in an America where trans people are pushed to the margins of society and face cruel treatment and erasure. But a brutal crime proves a breaking point for two trans women who, bolstered by mutual care and solidarity of the trans community, seek out the perpetrator and find a conspiracy that reaches to the highest level of the government.
“This is a script that was extremely important for me to write,” said Wachowski during that same podcast appearance. “It was a response to what is happening in the world for trans people, and it gave me a hugely cathartic receptacle to dump all of my anger and rage and frustration into.”
This movie, if made, would help address a shocking lack of trans representation in film. According to GLAAD’s 2026 “Where We Are in Film” study, there were zero trans characters represented in the 225 films from 10 major distributors released in 2025. This is part of a larger trend of dwindling LGBTQ+ representation, which has seen the number of queer characters in general decline over the last three years.
