Francis Lawrence Suggests A New ‘Constantine’ Movie Is In The Works But Without Him & Keanu Reeves

A timely interview gives some credence to some recent rumors. The gossip of late? That Warner Bros. is developing a new “Constantine” film or sequel is in the works and possibly with Keanu Reeves (the rumor being they want him, but who knows if they can get him). The adjunct talk is that “Constantine” character falls under the “Justice League Dark” umbrella, which is currently being handled by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot company which is now in charge of all things ‘JLD’ on HBO Max, reportedly TV series and movies, so “Constantine” could be an upcoming Bad Robot series or movie connected to whatever becomes of “Justice League Dark” (speculation on top of that is ‘JLD’ solo movies or series that will “Avengers” or “Defenders” style team-up down the road. All of that is unsubstantiated and not reported by any major outlets, but it’s the rumor du jour, just FYI.

OK, but then, in a recent Slashfilm interview, director Francis Lawrence (“The Hunger Games”)— who directed the original “Constantine” movie starring Keanu Reeves— is asked about the film as it approaches its 15th anniversary. Lawrence has a lengthy response to “Constantine” and its future, but the short version is when asked if he’d like to do a sequel to the film, he says yes, would love to do with it Keanu, but suggests WB/DC already have plans for the Constantine character, which makes sense given the rumors.

“I think we all wanted to do it,” Lawrence said, adding, he Keanu Reeves, and producer Akiva Goldsman, even discussed it recently. “It was successful enough. We wanted to make a responsible, more R-rated movie. By responsible, I mean, we’d make a movie that wouldn’t cost quite as much as the original, which we thought was going to be PG-13. We worked on the sequel for a while. It was tricky to come up with where to take it. What I really liked about the first one was it was a really personal story, so I thought it’d be a mistake to get caught up in the supernatural gobblygook. The idea of a personal story was really interesting, and that was the hard thing to come across. We have been talking about it recently. It’s always stuck with all of us because we all love the movie, and especially realizing there’s a real cult following for this movie, it’d be fun to make. Keanu, Akiva, and I have actually talked about it.”

But then, Lawrence continues and says the IP owners— in this case, Warner Bros. DC/HBO Max—have “other plans” for the character, which could very well be what we chronicled in the online rumors.

“Unfortunately, I don’t even remember who has it, but with all these shared universes that exist now, with Constantine being a part of Vertigo, which is a part of DC, people have plans for these shared universes. You know, possibly different Constantines and things like that. Right now, we don’t have that character available to us for TV or movies, which is a bummer. We all investigated it, but I think it’s kind of crazy when you have Keanu, who would love to do another Constantine, and us wanting to do another Constantine, and people are like, ‘Uh, no, we got other plans.’ We’ll see what happens.”

Personally, I buy it for simple reasons that were already speculated on and rather simple reasoning: Bad Robot is in charge of all things Justice League Dark now on HBO Max, that’s fact and public, and Constantine is a JLD character. Now, how much J.J Abrams will be directly involved and in what capacity remains to be seen, but that was always the case. Either way, Lawrence may have unsettled and potentially confirmed some loose talk that makes a lot of sense.