I was always kinda bummed that CONSTANTINE never got a sequel. While hardly a runaway hit, it still grossed a pretty hefty $230 million worldwide, although given that it cost $100 million it was still seen as a flop by most. Also, it’s worth noting some fans had a really hard time with Keanu Reeves playing DC’s John Constantine, with the comic version more like a young Sting or Billy Idol compared to Keanu. The role was more faithfully cast on the short-running tv series "Constantine", with star Matt Ryan going on to reprise the role in the CW's Arrowverse, with him a regular on "Legends of Tomorrow." Nevertheless, over time the film has gone on to become fairly well-regarded, especially in the wake of Keanu’s post-JOHN WICK comeback, and now CONSTANTINE director Francis Lawrence says he’s still keen to do the follow-up that never happened.
Speaking to the good folks at Slashfilm, Lawrence revealed, “we have been talking about it recently. It’s always stuck with all of us because we all love the movie, and especially realizing there’s a real cult following for this movie, it’d be fun to make. Keanu, Akiva, and I have actually talked about it. Unfortunately, I don’t even remember who has it, but with all these shared universes that exist now, with Constantine being a part of Vertigo, which is a part of DC, people have plans for these shared universes. You know, possibly different Constantines and things like that. Right now, we don’t have that character available to us for TV or movies, which is a bummer. We all investigated it, but I think it’s kind of crazy when you have Keanu, who would love to do another Constantine, and us wanting to do another Constantine, and people are like, “Uh, no, we got other plans.” We’ll see what happens.”
It’s worth noting that Lawrence himself went on to become a pretty successful director, helming three HUNGER GAMES movies, as well as the rather good Jennifer Lawrence spy thriller RED SPARROW. The whole CONSTANTINE gang, including Keanu Reeves, is due to reunite for Comic-Con @ Home, so we’ll see. Maybe we’ll get some more news!
What do you think? Is a CONSTANTINE sequel worth doing? Talkback below!