Keanu Reeves is in the mood to return to some of his former roles. With a new Bill and Ted already released and the return of Neo imminent in The Matrix Resurrections, Reeves now reveals that he wants another shot at playing John Constantine.
Created by Alan Moore, Constantine is one of the biggest names in DC Comics. He’s the lead character in books like Hellblazer (1988–2013), Constantine (2013–2015) and most recently John Constantine: Hellblazer (2020–2021).
Despite his comics success, the 2005 film Constantine starring Reeves in the lead role fizzled, making just $230.9 million at the box office. While it made back almost double Warner’s outlay, it wasn’t enough, and a lukewarm reception from critics doomed the movie to be a one-and-done deal.
However, Reeves isn’t ready to give up on the role yet. Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday to promote the new Matrix movie, the actor told Colbert that he “would love to play John Constantine again, from the Constantine film.”
The live audience reacted positively to the suggestion, giving Reeves plenty of applause and perhaps defying the notion that Constantine is a forgotten movie in the DC canon. The actor, however, revealed that he’d tried to get a sequel going and was unsuccessful.
The idea of a Constantine sequel has been raised before, with director Francis Lawrence saying in 2011 that he’d love to do a “hard-R scary version”:
"It’s interesting that over the years, Constantine seems like it’s become … like it has this sort of cult following, which has been great. It’s been embraced. It would be great to figure out a sequel, and if we did, and we’ve been trying to figure one out, it would be great to do the really dark, scary version. We got caught in that weird PG-13–R no man’s land, and we should do the hard-R scary version, which I would love to do."
Will there be a Constantine sequel?
Last year, Peter Stormare, who played Lucifer Morningstar in the original movie, said mysteriously on Instagram that a sequel was “in the works.” So does Keanu know more than he’s letting on? Or did Stormare have the wrong information? Who knows. For now, it seems we’ll have to settle for more John Wick and the return of Neo, which is certainly no bad thing.
The Matrix Resurrections is in theaters and on HBO Max December 22.
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