Hugo Weaving who plays Agent Smith in the Matrix will not be reprising his role for the new Matrix 4, reports have said. The actor who was recently promoting his newest film, Measure for Measure told Collider that he was not part of the new Matrix 4 due to scheduling complications.

The actor revealed that he wanted to reprise the role, as he played all Agent Smith for all three movies of The Matrix. Many of the original cast from the trilogy have agreed to reprise their roles.

In the interview, Weaver said, 'Lana was very keen for me to be a part of [The Matrix 4]. I really wanted to because I’m very, very fond of all of them, had some initial reticence about the idea of going back to revisit The Matrix, after having already done three films, but then I read the script and got an offer to my agent. I immediately responded yes to that, and then we went into negotiation. I was doing a play, at the time, but we were working out dates and things so that I could do both.”

Unfortunately, the actor could not juggle the play and the set date for filming to start. Director, Lana Wachowski, was also adamant about no scheduling changes, thus Hugo Weaver had to forego reprising Agent Smith on the new Matrix.

The production of The Matrix 4 started last February 2020 in San Fransisco but was halted due to COVID-19. Just last month the filming was resumed in Berlin. 

Keanu Reeves will be back as Neo, Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity, plus Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe, who was featured in the sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

A slew of new cast members has also been announced, such as Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra, Jonathan Groff, Yahya Abdul-Mateen III and Jessica Henwick.

Details of the new Matrix have not been revealed yet but the original creator and director, Lana Wachowski, who directed all trilogy together with her sister, Lily Wachowski, has taken full reigns on the production of Matrix 4.

Lana co-wrote the script for Matrix 4 with her previous collaborators David Mitchell, of which she co-wrote the movie Cloud Atlas and Aleksander Hermon from Sense8.

The Matrix 4 has a set release date of April 1, 2022, but this could be delayed since there is no news of how much filming is to be done.