When Jessica Henwick had to choose between ‘Shang-Chi’ and ‘Matrix 4’

‘The Matrix Resurrections’ actress Jessica Henwick says she had a “red pill, blue pill” moment when she had to pick between two major film studios

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Henwick revealed that, when up for the part of Bugs in the latest installment of the ‘Matrix’ franchise, she had also had the opportunity to star in another film that would prove to be a major box office success: Marvel’s ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’.

While it is unknown what part she was offered to audition for, the actress revealed that both Disney and Warner Bros., the studio producing ‘Resurrections’, gave her an ultimatum: that she could only audition for one.

The day she received the offer from Warner Bros. to fly to Los Angeles to chemistry read with the actors up for the role of Morpheus, including Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, was the same day she got an offer to screen test for ‘Shang-Chi’. “[The studios] knew about the other offers, and both of them gave me the offer on the stipulation that I could only audition for one or the other. And there was no guarantee that I would get either,” Henwick recalls. “It was a red pill, blue pill moment for me.”

She ultimately sided with ‘The Matrix’ because it felt like a rare moment. “I’ve had a great working relationship with Marvel,” Henwick said, alluding to her role as Colleen in the now-cancelled Marvel-Netflix series ‘Iron Fist’. “I’ve obviously done Marvel TV, so I was already in the universe. I knew that joining ‘The Matrix’ is not an opportunity that you get every day. Lana has had so many offers to make more Matrix films. I just knew it was now or never. Whereas, obviously, Marvel is a huge, wonderful company that makes films very, very regularly.”

‘The Matrix Resurrections’ releases in UAE cinemas on December 23.