While speaking with TimeOutLondon, Aussie actor Hugo Weaving has revealed he was offered to return for Lana Wachowski’s Matrix 4 having to turn it down over scheduling issues. 

WEAVING: “The Matrix is a very different story. It’s unfortunate but actually, I had this offer [for The Visit] and then the offer came from The Matrix, so I knew it was happening but I didn’t have dates. I thought [I] could do both and it took eight weeks to work out that the dates would work – I held off on accepting [a role in The Visit during that time]. I was in touch with [director] Lana Wachowski, but in the end she decided that the dates weren’t going to work. So we’d sorted the dates and then she sort of changed her mind. They’re pushing on ahead without me.”

The current cast of Matrix 4 consists of Keanu Reeves (Neo), Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity), and Jada Pinkett Smith (Niobe), Jessica Henwick (Godzilla vs Kong, Iron Fist, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Neil Patrick Harris (Starship Troopers, Gone Girl), Eréndira Ibarra (Sense8), Toby Onwumere, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen, Aquaman).

Matrix 4 is said to begin shooting next month with a release date set for May 21st, 2021. 

Hugo also revealed that he ultimately didn’t reprise the Red Skull role in Avengers: Endgame because putting together a deal with Marvel Studios via his agent was “impossible”. 

WEAVING: “Oh, yeah. I loved playing that character Red Skull – it was a lot of fun. We were all obliged to sign up for three pictures: I was thinking [Red Skull] probably wouldn’t come back in Captain America but he may well come back as a villain in The Avengers. By then, they’d pushed back on the contracts that we agreed on and so the money they offered me for The Avengers was much less than I got for the very first one, and this was for two films. And the promise when we first signed the contracts was that the money would grow each time. They said: ‘It’s just a voice job, it’s not a big deal’. I actually found negotiating with them through my agent impossible. And I didn’t really wanna do it that much. But I would have done it.”

It’s interesting to see that Marvel simply just hired a voice impersonator instead.

SOURCE: TIME OUT LONDON