It’s been 20 years since the release of Constantine, but director Francis Lawrence says Constantine 2 is “closer than ever.”
It’s been nearly three years since we first learned that Warner Bros. was developing a long-belated sequel to Constantine. A lot has changed in that time, such as James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over DC Studios, but the project is still kicking. In fact, director Francis Lawrence told Collider that Constantine 2 is “closer than ever” to actually happening.
“I will say we are closer than ever to being able to do a sequel, which is a great thing,” Lawrence said. “And Akiva, Keanu and I are super, super excited about it.” Lawrence will direct the sequel from a script by Akiva Goldsman, and, of course, Keanu Reeves returns as the cynical exorcist and demonologist.
The original Constantine movie was released in 2005 and grossed a respectable $230.9 million on a $70-100 million budget. The movie found Constantine helping an LAPD detective (Rachel Weisz) prove that her sister’s death wasn’t a suicide but was, in fact, something much more sinister. As for the sequel, Lawrence didn’t drop any major teases, only to say, “We have a great idea.“
He continued, “We have gone through a bunch of the comics over the years and looked at things. I will say that there’s probably grains from things that we’re pulling, but in truth, most of it is just coming from the three of us, you know, loving the character, loving the world, having it sort of in the back of our minds for 20 years and just kind of percolating on ideas, and stories and characters we love, and ideas we love.“
Lawrence has previously teased that he would like to develop Constantine 2 with an R-rating in mind. “One of the biggest things for me about the first one was we followed, per Warner Bros., the rules to make a PG-13 movie in terms of violence, blood, language, sexuality,” Lawrence said. “But the ratings board gave us a hard R based on their the gray zone of intensity. And my big, big regret was that we have an R-rated movie that’s really a PG-13 movie. And if I was going to have to go have an R, I would have really made an R-rated movie. I would have made it much scarier and much more violent and I would have really made an R-rated movie. The idea is this time, at least for me, is to really go at it and make a real R-rated Constantine which is, I think, what people always wanted originally, not the PG-13 version that just happens to get an R.“
In celebration of its 20th anniversary, Constantine will be released on 4K Ultra HD on February 18th.
