WIRE Buzz: Altered Carbon reveals Season 2 premiere, Hugo Weaving nixes Matrix 4, more

Altered Carbon's second season finally has a premiere date on Netflix: Feb. 27. This was confirmed by the show's official Twitter account earlier today. Anthony Mackie (Avengers: Endgame, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) will be taking over for Joel Kinnaman as the latest body sleeve for the sharp-witted mind of seasoned cyberpunk-noir investigator Takeshi Kovacs.

The tweet also came with a mysterious teaser video. The post's caption reads: "Your re-sleeving is now complete."

Simone Missick, Dina Shihabi, Torben Liebrecht, James Saito, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and Chris Conner will co-star in Season 2.

The sci-fi show is an adaptation of the Kovacs mystery novels by Richard K. Morgan, and an anime version of Altered Carbon is also in the works at Netflix.

While the fourth Matrix movie has attracted Keanu Reeves (Neo) and Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) back to the groundbreaking franchise, it has not been able to draw back Hugo Weaving, who will not be reprising his iconic role of Agent Smith.

"I’m not, no," said the Mortal Engines actor in a recent interview with Time Out, revealing that his lack of involvement with the project came down to a simple scheduling conflict.

Credit: Warner Bros.

"It’s unfortunate but actually I had this offer [for The Visit] and then the offer came from The Matrix, so I knew it was happening but I didn’t have dates," he explained. "I thought [I] could do both and it took eight weeks to work out that the dates would work — I held off on accepting [a role in The Visit during that time]. I was in touch with [director] Lana Wachowski, but in the end she decided that the dates weren’t going to work. So we’d sorted the dates and then she sort of changed her mind. They’re pushing on ahead without me."

That's a real bummer, but just because Weaving isn't appearing in the movie doesn't mean that Agent Smith can't come back in some different form. In addition to Reeves and Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jada Pinkett Smith, Toby Onwumere, Jessica Henwick, Neil Patrick Harris, and Jonathan Groff have also been cast.

Directed by Lana Wachowski, The Matrix 4 plugs into theaters on May 21, 2021.

A film adaptation of Kung Fu, a martial arts TV show from the early '70s, is currently in the works at Universal with David Leitch (Deadpool 2, Hobbs & Shaw) set to direct, reports Deadline.

Created by Ed Spielman, Jerry Thorpe, and Herman Miller, Kung Fu ran for 63 episodes across three seasons between 1972 and 1975 on ABC.

The late David Carradine (Kill Bill) starred as Kwai Chang Caine, a martial artist who goes on adventures in the Old West after the death of his master in China. Standing up for the weak and persecuted, Caine must also evade assassins who are hot on his trail. It's just the sort of genre mashup that keeps Quentin Tarantino up at night with giddy excitement.

Spielman is the only living creator and will produce the movie alongside Leitch and Kelly McCormick.

This isn't Leitch's only martial-arts-inspired project in development. The filmmaker is reported to be remaking 1973's Enter the Dragon for Warner Bros. as well.