The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes has finally been released and has a bit of an uphill battle to contend with. The new movie will obviously not include the popular franchise series’ star, Jennifer Lawrence, and interest in the prequel isn’t generating the same buzz as the sequels to the 2012 original. The film’s director, Francis Lawrence, is a series regular and has returned for this new entry. However, there are other titles in Lawrence’s resume that fans have been wanting follow-ups for.
The Hollywood Reporter has recently spoken with The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes director, where he addresses that he’s currently working on getting Constantine 2 in motion. As James Gunn and Peter Safran take over the DC film slate, Lawrence is asked if the regime change meant that a sequel to Constantine was dead. Lawrence responded, “No, but we’ve had many obstacles. Me, Keanu, Akiva [Goldsman] have tried over the years to wrangle some control of the character again, because it had been handed over. I think NBC did a TV show, and then J.J. [Abrams] was going to try and do something. And then the regime at DC changed, and they’ve got their plans. But luckily, we managed to wrangle some control and started working on some ideas for Constantine 2, which we’re really excited about. It’s still the very beginning, as the strike put it on hold for a little bit. So we’re probably going to start getting back together after Thanksgiving, and dig back in to try and crack it.”
Lawrence’s sophomore effort after Constantine was helming the Will Smith adaptation of the famous Richard Matheson story, I Am Legend. Although Smith is usually a franchise actor, I Am Legend featured a self-sacrifice of his character that wouldn’t lend itself to a sequel. However, there have still been talks of an I Am Legend 2 still happening with Michael B. Jordan attached and Smith would somehow return. Lawrence addresses why the apocalyptic sequel has equally been struggling, “It’s a tough one. We talked about a sequel or prequel right after we made the original one. Then we all went off and did different things. And then I remember hearing that they were going to just do a reboot of it and remake it with somebody else, but then that went away. I know that Akiva is working on something now, but honestly, my focus is on Constantine 2. So we’ll see. Best of luck.”