Keanu Reeves begged Warner Bros for a ‘Constantine’ sequel
Following the announcement that a Constantine sequel is in development, Keanu Reeves has revealed that he begged Warner Bros for a follow-up to the successful 2005 film every year since its release. By making his best Oliver Twist impression, he asked the company, “Can I please have some more?” until they finally agreed. A sequel was confirmed in September 2022, with Francis Lawrence returning to direct.
However, during an interview with Total Film, Reeves shed greater insight into the process of convincing Warner Bros to make a sequel. He said: “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. ‘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!'”
Discussing the sequel, Reeves shared: “It’s exciting. 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 realize that dream.”
Speaking to The Wrap, Lawrence admitted that he was reluctant to sign onto the project until it was clear that Reeves and the screenwriter Akiva Goldsman would have “control” over the characters. He continued: “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,” referencing the “craziness with DC”.
Moreover, he explained: “And now I think people realise that there might really be an appetite for another version of the Keanu Constantine,” adding that the sequel will be R-rated because that is “what people always wanted originally”.
J.J. Abrams will be producing the project under his Bad Robot company. It is currently unclear whether actors from the 2005 film, such as Rachel Weisz and Tilda Swinton, will reprise their roles.
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