The long-awaited sequel doesn’t seem to be moving forward, but producers, Reeves, and Gunn have all suggested it’s still in development.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura, a veteran film producer who has worked on everything from Transformers to The Meg, says he still holds out hope for Constantine 2 to move forward with Keanu Reeves.
The project, which fans and Reeves have long hoped for, finally seemed to be moving forward a couple years ago — and then, like everything else at Warner Bros. and DC, it ground to a standstill when the studio had a series of high profile flops.
Since taking over, Reeves said that he has spoken with executives James Gunn and Peter Safran, suggesting Constantine is still very much in play — but they haven’t really talked about the specifics much.
That has led some fans to assume it’s not going to happen — although considering it’s likely Gunn wants to establish his universe before getting too far down the “Elseworlds” line, it’s entirely possible that there’s just a plan fans can’t see.
Speaking with ComicBook.com in support of Madame Web, di Bonaventura praised the character of John Constantine as well as the original film itself. He says he hopes things keep moving forward.
“I hope it does, because its’ a great character,” di Bonaventura told us. “Great in comic books, and it was great making that first movie. It’s such an alternative kind of character.
It’s what really attracted me to Madame Web, was the singularity of the character, that idea that she is going to become blind and that she is going to become this other thing was really attractive.
Constantine’s future has been up in the air for a while, with rumors of Reeves’ return going back years. At one point, J.J. Abrams was reportedly developing a raft of Justice League Dark-related projects, including a Constantine TV series, for HBO Max — although that seemed to fall apart even before James Gunn came to DC.
Back in February of 2023, writer Akiva Goldsman said that they were still breaking the story for the sequel.
“I was always working within a certain framework with John, or trying to. Legends is a really fun, wacky show, and now I don’t have to look after John so much,” Matt Ryan, who played the character for years on TV, told ComicBook in 2021.
“So I have a lease on life there creatively, as an actor with this new character, that maybe I didn’t have with John. It was a different challenge, obviously. And as a fan, I’m so excited to see where he’s going to go now.
And I can actually get excited about that, whether it’s on TV, or whether it’s in a movie, or Keanu’s playing him, or what have you. I’m just like, ‘Okay, what’s John doing?’ And I’m his biggest fan. So that is really exciting to me. Really exciting.”
