More than two decades after the 2005 original, the return of exorcist John Constantine – with the return of Keanu Reeves – has officially begun. Looking back, “Constantine” (2005) was a gothic DC/Vertigo work, mixed with spiritual and horror elements, which had an unimpressive start but then gradually became a “cult” film with a large loyal fan base.In 2022, Warner Bros. and director Francis Lawrence – who made the first film’s mark with a dark style and haunting exorcism – joined hands to start the second part project. Keanu Reeves made promising statements on Inverse: “We just created a story and presented it to DC Studios, they said ‘OK’, now focus on writing the script”. Director Lawrence also said that they were “closer than ever” to the right idea, developed from Hellblazer itself to keep the spirit of the comic.
One of the highlights of “Constantine2” revealed by both Reeves and his colleagues is that the film continues to maintain the universe of the original, not turning into a multi-level universe like many other superheroes. Constantine himself is still a lonely individual, fighting against supernatural forces with more severe inner torture ﹣ “John Constantine’s going to be tortured even more”.
The director wants to create a true R-rated version – satisfying the expectations of the original fan community.
What makes the project more complicated comes from Reeves’s perfectionism. According to his co-star PeterStormare (the original Lucifer), Keanu is still not satisfied with many of the proposed scripts, worried about moving away from the dark spirit and deep inner thoughts of the original into an action movie like “John Wick in the Constantine world”.
. Stormare quotes Reeves: “I’ve done John Wick. It’s a spiritual film, about demons and ordinary people.”
. The struggle between maintaining the spiritual horror and the pressure from the studio on commercial factors has delayed the process for quite a while. In terms of progress, the script was confirmed to be complete in September 2024 by producer LorenzodiBonaventura. After that, the project continued to enter the “rewrite and fight with the approval level” phase, expected to start production in 2025 and if all goes well, the film could be released in late 2026 or early 2027.
In short, “Constantine 2” is not simply a sequel but a deeper journey into pain, belief and mystical power – with the perfectionism and creative conservatism of Keanu Reeves and Francis Lawrence. Despite delays and multiple adjustments, the production machine is still rolling, bringing hopeful signs to the community that loves the genre of spiritual horror films interwoven with healing. If realized as the story, this could be one of the classic 2nd parts of the supernatural film genre.
