Game of Thrones vet Jessica Henwick chose The Matrix over Marvel

She may not quite be a household name, but Jessica Henwick has turned up in a lot of major franchises over a fairly short period of time. She was Nymeria Sand on Game of Thrones. She was a pilot in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. She played Coleen Wing in Iron Fist, which kinda-sorta means she’s part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And soon enough she play the character of Bugs in The Matrix Resurrections.

And it ends that she only took The Matrix job after turning down a role in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, one of Marvel’s latest big tentpole films. It was either Shang-Chi or The Matrix, which is a pretty good dilemma to have. “[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,” Henwick told Entertainment Weekly. “And there was no guarantee that I would get either. It was a red pill, blue pill moment for me.”

Ultimately, Henwick chose The Matrix because it seemed like the rarer opportunity. “I’ve obviously done Marvel TV, so I was already in the universe,” she said. “I knew that joining The Matrix is not an opportunity that you get every day. [Director Lana Wachowski] 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.”

That’s a polite way of saying Marvel has a firehouse of content that never stops even if you wish it would. I think there’s a good chance that might call her again sometime.

More proof that Marvel is ditching Netflix shows like Daredevil

Although, it’s interesting that Marvel would offer Henwick the opportunity to audition for Shang-Chi at all considering that she was already in Marvel series Iron Fist. That seems like more proof that Marvel is happy to leave behind Iron Fist and its sister shows Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Daredevil. If they don’t care that she would appear in both, they must not consider the Netflix shows a real part of the MCU.

Anyway, The Matrix Resurrections comes out on December 22. After that, Henwick can start planning which big franchise to appear in next. Lord of the Rings, maybe?

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