When Keanu Reeves comes up in the context of sequels these days, that discussion has been absurdly fixated on whether John Wick 5 will happen. Do people not remember what, you know, happened to Wick? And do they not care about Keanu’s knees? He does. Besides, these discussions ignore the fact that an even more tantalizing sequel project is coming up from Hell. No, we are not talking about another Bill And Ted movie because those dudes already had their Bogus Journey and are over it, unlike a certain other character who was destined to dance in a more hard-boiled way with Lucifer’s kind again. So, which sequel, again?
That would be a followup to 2005’s Constantine, which achieved cult-favorite status and could frankly mop the floor with most other comic book movie or TV adaptations of nearly the past two decades. No offense to James Gunn’s budding DCU, but the Reeves movie (based upon DC Comics’ Hellblazer series) was not only superior but both grim as Hell and ethereally beautiful as Heaven could ever hope to be. The movie also arguably contained the best damn exorcism scene in cinematic history. Seriously, John Constantine punched a demon and gave it the finger, and that only enhanced the vibe.
You ready to talk about what to expect from the impending sequel? Hell yeah.
Plot
Constantine‘s very existence as a movie, despite how underappreciated it was upon release, felt like a gothic dream, complete with Tilda Swinton’s exquisite, incisive delivery of archangel Gabriel. But to get down to hard-boiled brass tacks, the first film introduced Reeves’ conman/occult magician, who was suffering from terminal lung cancer and working to avoid his own damnation by vanquishing demons. He paired up with Rachel Weisz’s Angela to prove that her identical twin, Isabel, didn’t commit suicide. And unlike John Wick, John Constantine survived his most recent movie starring Keanu.
Sequel talk finally got serious in 2022 when Warner Bros. formally hit the greenlight with Reeves reprising his antihero’s brand of self-loathing with director Francis Lawrence and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. The studio, according to Reeves while speaking to Inverse, simply said “okay” to their pitched story, which paved the way for the real magic to start happening.
Plot details are top secret, but Reeves previously alluded to a script draft and admitted to Comic Book that he was too afraid to read it, lest his heart be broken if it wasn’t as good as hoped. He finally read it, but apparently (via the aforementioned Inverse interview), that was only one phase, because they’re heading back in for a final script. Prior to these teases, Akiva Goldsman revealed that the sequel would stay true to the original film’s themes, and “and the wonderful and authentic noir where there is a world behind the world of good and evil coexist with our world right up close.”
Further, Francis Lawrence recently told Collider, “I will say we are closer than ever to being able to do a sequel, which is a great thing. And Akiva, Keanu and I are super, super excited about it.” The project will take advantage of the accumulating comic lore but will also be a story that hails from this trio:
“We have gone through a bunch of the comics over the years and looked at things. I will say that there’s probably grains from things that we’re pulling, but in truth, most of it is just coming from the three of us, you know, loving the character, loving the world, having it sort of in the back of our minds for 20 years and just kind of percolating on ideas, and stories and characters we love, and ideas we love.”
Will this movie have anything to do with James Gunn’s budding DCU for WBD? Not at all, according to Keanu: “We’re not going off that. John Constantine’s going to be tortured even more.”
Cast
Constantine 2 will star Keanu Reeves. Is that all that’s necessary? For now, yes. No word has surfaced on who could return, including Rachel Weisz (primarily as twin Angela but also the dead Isabel), Tilda Swinton (as Gabriel), Djimon Hounsou (as Papa Midnite), Peter Stormare (as Lucifer), and Shia LaBeouf (as Chas Kramer, who didn’t survive) among the initial cast.
However, Swinton doesn’t believe that a return is in the cards: “Unless they’re very late in calling me, I don’t think Gabriel will be flapping his/her wings.”
Release Date
Even with development and script writing finally hitting its stride, this looks like a 2027 release.
(Original) Trailer
Honest question: do they make trailers like this anymore?
