Despite rumors saying that the Constantine sequel had been canceled, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that the project is still moving forward.
While the future of the DC Universe was unveiled in part last week by co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran, a sequel to the 2005 cult classic starring Keanu Reeves was never mentioned. This led many insiders on Twitter to begin noting that the project was scrapped and only ever greenlit in the first place due to the uncertainty of what the future of the DCU looked like.
However, that no longer appears to be the case thanks to EW’s report on the matter. Instead, the sequel — which was originally announced in mid-2022 — will continue to be developed and will presumably still see director Francis Lawrence and star Keanu Reeves return for another entry.
While next to nothing is known about what the sequel to 2005’s Constantine might be about, Lawrence has said that he wants this one to be properly R-rated.
“One of the biggest things, for me, about the first one was we followed, per Warner Bros., the rules to make a PG-13 movie in terms of violence, blood, language, sexuality. But the ratings board gave us a hard R based on their the gray zone of intensity,” said Lawrence in an interview with TheWrap. “And my big, big regret was that we have an R-rated movie that’s really a PG-13 movie, and if I was going to have to go have an R, I would have really made an R-rated movie. I would have made it much scarier and much more violent, and I would have really made an R-rated movie.”
“The idea is, this time, at least for me, is to really go at it and make a real R- rated Constantine which is, I think, what people always wanted originally, not the PG-13 version that just happens to get an R,” said Lawrence.
The original 2005 Constantine film was met with mixed reviews but quickly became a cult classic amongst fans. Not too much is known about the planned sequel as of now, but the film will be written by Akiva Goldsman and produced alongside J.J. Abrams and Hannah Minghella.
