Keanu Reeves’ Constantine 2 could finally happen — the director says DC’s old bosses were blocking it

If you've ever found yourself wondering whether Keanu Reeves would actually get to light up that last Silk Cut as Constantine again, you might want to pay attention to the latest DC Studios shuffle. Turns out, the winds could be changing — and not a moment too soon after two decades of everyone involved beating their heads against a wall.

Francis Lawrence, who directed the original film, summed up the mood speaking to Collider: "Not that I want anybody to lose their jobs, so this is not like a schadenfreude kind of thing, but I will say that we’ve been trying to make Constantine 2 for 20-something years, and we have an idea, and we have a script, and we’ve been wanting to make it, and the people that were at DC were an impediment to us making it. So, we are now more hopeful as of yesterday’s news that maybe now there will be another opportunity. But again, we’ve been trying to make this for 20-something years, and there’s always been obstacles in the road to making it, and it’s not me, it’s not Keanu, it’s not Akiva. J.J. [Abrams] is on it, as well. We all want to do it. So, it’s really going to be people at Paramount, Warner, whoever’s running DC now, getting everybody on board to say, like, ‘Hey, we can do a sequel of our version of Constantine.’"

In classic DC fashion, nothing comes easy. Just this week, James Gunn and Peter Safran (supposed to be the ones steering the ship) officially stepped down as the top dogs at DC Studios. Taking the helm now: Jeremy Latcham, who you might know as a former bigwig over at Marvel. The vibe, according to Lawrence, is that Latcham might be a bit more open to a Constantine sequel — mostly because the old regime always seemed to be blocking the whole thing from actually happening, no matter how ready everyone else was.

Twenty Years of Doors Getting Slammed

If it feels like rumours about a Constantine 2 have been floating around since the Stone Age, you’re not far off. The main players — Keanu Reeves, director Francis Lawrence, writer Akiva Goldsman, and even J.J. Abrams — have apparently had a script in their back pocket, waiting for studio higher-ups to just give it a proper green light. For Lawrence, the shake-up is at least a chance to try again, even if it’s the latest in a long line of attempts to get this thing off the ground.

Lawrence reckons the chances are genuinely looking up now, saying, "I have renewed hope as of yesterday that there might be some possibility for forward movement there."

Of course, just to make things even messier, DC Studios is already developing a whole new Constantine project as of last week — reportedly hiring Francis Galluppi (off the back of his Evil Dead Wrath script) to work on the screenplay. Yes, that’s right: literally days before Gunn and Safran were out the door, they'd started working on a fresh take on John Constantine. Not confusing at all.

• The original Constantine with Keanu Reeves came out over 20 years ago
• Lawrence, Reeves, Goldsman, and Abrams have been trying for a sequel for two decades
• James Gunn and Peter Safran out; Jeremy Latcham in as DC Studios boss
• Separate new Constantine film in the works from Francis Galluppi

With two versions of hellblazer in the mix and a whole load of musical chairs at the studio, it’s anyone’s guess which way DC will jump next, or if they’ll just end up making both (because, why not?).