In 2021, it was revealed that John Wick star Keanu Reeves had agreed to reprise the role of John Constantine in a sequel to the 2005 movie. Constantine helmer Francis Lawrence signed up to step back into the director's chair, with Akiva Goldsman tapped to work on the screenplay with him.
The original movie may have Americanized DC Comics' Hellblazer, but the love for it has only increased since it was first released. As for Reeves, he's more popular now than ever before and appears to have become something of a passion project for the actor.
There have been conflicting reports about what's happening with Constantine 2, though it's still thought to be in the works and will likely be released under DC Studios' "Elseworlds" banner if and when it happens.
Original Constantine writer Frank Cappello recently took part in an AMA on r/Movies and revealed that, after the plug was pulled on Constantine 2, he was asked by Warner Bros. to instead pen a Swamp Thing movie!
"After Constantine released and didn't do as well as the studio wanted, they had to cancel my contract on writing an official Constantine 2. They offered me two alternates and one was Swamp Thing. Now if you know the Constantine/Hellblazer world, Alan Moore wrote the original Swamp Thing and that was where John Constantine was first seen. So once I saw that I decided to pick Swamp Thing to write."
"I wrote it as a metaphysical horror film and wanted to put Constantine in it but i was not allowed for legal reasons. So I invented a character that had the same vibe as JC and called him Mr 'E'. That was a Joel Silver production and it never got made. Probably because Mr Silver wanted a giant talking plant man like the cheesy TV series and my draft was based on the darker cool world that Alan Moore originally did. I wish I could leak that script out so people could see how cool that film would have been."
DC Studios is developing a new take on Swamp Thing, this time with Logan director James Mangold at the helm. Plans for Constantine beyond the aforementioned sequel to the 2005 movie are less clear, though we know James Gunn and Peter Safran pulled the plug on J.J. Abrams' idea for the Hellblazer in a Max TV series.
Elsewhere during this Q&A, Cappello reflected on the backlash to an American actor being cast as the British demon hunter.
"I was on the Hellblazer chat site in England while writing the first one and heard all the gripes about Keanu being in it and disowning it before it ever came out, so there was no winning them over at that point. When it finally came out, they were split. It wasn't their JC, it was America's and of course they rebelled, but many liked it for what it was - and the haters got their series with an English guy and the fans of the film started screaming - where's Keanu!"
"And the series failed. It's like fans of Batman hated Michael Keaton originally cast as Batman and yet screamed for his return after Clooney and Val and it's the only thing in current The Flash people didn't hate - the return of Keaton as Batman."
Do you think Constantine 2 will happen? Let us know your thoughts on that, and Cappello's comments, in the usual place.