Tilly Bridges teases mystery project with Lilly Wachowski

The Matrix scholar and Begin Transmission author just dropped a very on-brand tease on Bluesky, and the internet's antennae are up.

Tilly Bridges, the trans screenwriter and Matrix historian behind Begin Transmission: The Trans Allegories of the Matrix, is teasing something new, and this time she's got some extra exciting backup. In a post on Bluesky, Bridges tagged Lilly Wachowski directly and asked her followers to brace themselves: "what's this? @lillywachowski.bsky.social and me? cooking up something amazing for YOU? believe it!"

No title, no logline, no timeline. Just two side-by-side video-call selfies — Wachowski beaming in tortoiseshell frames, Bridges clowning in heart-shaped red glasses — and a caption that doubles as a thesis statement: "being a illy with cool glasses is where it's at."

The pairing tracks. Bridges has spent years demonstrating (to cis and trans people alike) that the Wachowskis' films are trans allegory, from her book to guest spots dissecting The Matrix trilogy scene by scene. Wachowski, for her part, has been unusually public this year, reuniting with the Bound cast at Tribeca, and speaking openly about the funding struggles (due to its trans cast) behind her currently-stalled thriller The Hunted. Whether this new project connects to that world, is something entirely separate, or is closer to a podcast/panel-style collab than a scripted one, Bridges isn't saying yet.

Recently, Tilly wrote and directed her first short film, in collaboration with her wife Susan Bridges, titled the Long Away. The award-winning trans sci-fi short film is adapted from their own comic (published in The Color of Always anthology, with art by GLAAD winner Richard Fairgray) and produced by Star Trek science advisor Erin MacDonald, and it stars Griffin Kelly and Justin Lawrence Barnes. Tilly and Susan told Comics Beat the entire shoot happened in one grueling day, logging 91 takes across 36 shots, a pace she called “impossible” by normal standards. Other onscreen related credits include working as sensitivity consultants on Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 (specifically, helping shape the trans allegory in Zero’s arc), as head writers for The 2023 Nebula Awards and The 2021 Hugo Awards ceremonies, and as the creators behind the full-cast live read of the cyberpunk action dramedy pilot Robo Waitress Assassins, now on YouTube. 

Reached for comment, Bridges confirmed to us that the project is real but still in very early stages, and that she can't share anything further at this time.

We'll update as more drops.