Keanu Reeves has admitted just how hard he fought for Warner Bros to greenlight a Constantine sequel.
In September 2022, the studio confirmed a forthcoming sequel to the actor’s 2005 fantasy horror film – based on DC/Vertigo’s Hellblazer comics – in which he starred as suicide survivor and demon hunter John, who finds himself entangled in a supernatural plot between angelic and demonic forces.
The spin-off comes nearly two decades after the original was released, with Reeves admitting it took continued persistence before Warner Bros finally agreed to a sequel.
“I kept asking almost every year,” Reeves told Total Film (via MovieWeb). “I was like, [adopts Oliver Twist voice,] ‘Can I please have some more?’… I kept asking almost every year. I’d be like, ‘Can I please?’ [and] they’d be like, ‘No, no!’”
He continued: “I don’t know if it was unfinished business but it was definitely a role that I loved, and I thought that Francis Lawrence, the director, did such amazing work.
“I loved playing that character, and I really enjoyed the film.”
“It’s exciting,” Reeves said of the surprise sequel announcement. “It’s almost like an open playground that we can hopefully cook something up and play in, and I guess get out of the playground and prepare a meal, but I’m looking forward to it, and hopefully it can happen.
“You don’t know how these things go. But I’m definitely going to try my darnedest to try and realise that dream,” he added.
Lawrence will return to direct the follow-up, after saying in an earlier interview that he had to be “convinced” to sign on to the project once it was clear Reeves and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman could have “control” over the character.
“We finally have been sort of given the permission to go ahead and do our version of Constantine because people are always saving him to be part of some shared universe thing or some TV thing or whatever,” he said at the time.
Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Djimon Hounsou, and Gavin Rossdale starred alongside Reeves in the original film.
It has not yet been announced if any original cast members will reprise their roles in Constantine 2.
