Keanu Reeves has lately reprised many legendary roles, including Neo in The Matrix Resurrections and Ted in Bill and Ted Face the Music. Despite Reeves’ personal wish, no one is asking him to reprise his role as John Constantine. Reeves was asked on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert what other prior roles he’d want to reprise, knowing that if he asked, he’d almost certainly get it.
But, as Reeves pointed out, this isn’t the case. “That isn’t correct! That occurs. I’d love to reprise my role as John Constantine from the Constantine film.” Keanu Reeves went on to say that he “tried” to have a second Constantine film made with him in the lead role, but Hollywood was not interested. “I tried, Stephen,” Reeves said despondently. So, Keanu Reeves wants to play Constantine again, but Hollywood isn’t ready yet.
In 2005, Keanu Reeves starred as John Constantine, a member of the Justice League Dark and an exorcist from the DC-Vertigo world. In the comics, Constantine fights supernatural and magical perils that the ordinary Justice League doesn’t usually have to deal with.
The film’s casting, particularly Reeves’ — an American — performance as the gruff British supernatural hero, drew criticism. While the film was not well received by reviewers at the time (it now has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 46%), Constantine has developed a cult following for its gothic imagery and for being a superhero film that deals directly with religion. In addition, prominent performers Rachel Weisz, Tilda Swinton, and Peter Stormare had pivotal roles in the film.
While Keanu Reeves hasn’t reprised his role as Constantine, the character was temporarily resurrected for television. On a short-lived NBC sitcom, Welsh actor Matt Ryan portrayed a more authentic version of the character, which he revisited multiple times for The CW’s different DC series, including Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow.
Given how open DC is with their universe, including placing Ezra Miller’s Flash in the CW’s Flash series opposite Grant Gustin, there’s no reason Keanu Reeves couldn’t reprise his role as Constantine alongside Matt Ryan. Meanwhile, Reeves will be seen in the forthcoming Matrix Resurrections in a legendary role that Hollywood wanted to see him return for. Alternatively, see IGN’s preview of the Unreal Engine 5 experience in The Matrix Awakens.
Constantine 2 Confirmed By Warner Bros.
One of DC’s cult favorite flicks is reportedly getting a sequel. According to a report released on Friday, Warner Bros. is working on a follow-up to the 2005 film Constantine, which starred Keanu Reeves and was directed by Francis Lawrence. In addition to J.J. Abrams, Hannah Minghella, and Akiva Goldsman, who will write the screenplay and produce the movie, Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and Erwin Stoff will serve as executive producers. According to reports, the acquisition was supervised by Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, the new co-chairs of the Warner Bros. Picture Group.
This may be one of the more unexpected projects to be under development under the Warner Bros. Discovery leadership, which has recently been in the news for its long-term aspirations for the DC universe. Although Constantine is a fan favorite and was a commercial success when it was released in 2005, some people feel that it is just a loose approximation of the comic book Constantine mythology. Later, Matt Ryan played the role in live-action versions of the Constantine and DC Legends of Tomorrow television series, while Jenna Coleman portrayed a gender-flipped version of the character in the most current The Sandman Netflix series.
A new Constantine HBO Max-exclusive series that would be a part of a Justice League Dark shared world is also something that Abrams has been working on as part of a larger contract with Warner Bros. Whether this movie sequel will take over the plans for the program, which were said to be “on firm footing and going ahead” in an industry report last month, is unknown at this time.
A Constantine sequel has been rumored for a while now; co-star Peter Stormare previously said in 2020 that a sequel of some kind was in the works. Reeves has publicly stated his willingness to take up the part again.
In a 2020 interview, Lawrence remarked, “Unfortunately, I can’t even remember who owns it, but people have ideas for these shared worlds with all these shared universes that exist right now, with Constantine being a part of Vertigo, which is a part of DC.”
What do you think about Warner Bros. making a sequel to Constantine? Comment below with your ideas and let us know!
