Hugo Weaving has revealed that scheduling conflicts prevented him from taking part in the upcoming fourth movie in The Matrix franchise.

The unexpected sequel was announced last summer, with Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Jada Pinkett Smith all signing up to reprise their roles in a script from Lana Wachowski.

Weaving played the malevolent Agent Smith in all three of the original films and is the most notable absence from the new movie, and in a new interview Weaving has admitted that the initial plan was for him to take part.

"Lana was very keen for me to be a part," he told Collider. "I really wanted to because I'm very, very fond of all of them.

"I 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.

"[But] Lana decided that she didn't wanna change her dates, so I couldn't do it. In a nutshell, that's what happened."

After a delay due to coronavirus, filming on the new movie is now back underway in Berlin ahead of its planned release in April 2022.