HBO Max kills Constantine TV series, Constantine movie sequel goes forward

John Constantine is a hero from DC Comics who spends his time sending every demon he can to hell in the hopes that it earns him a place in heaven. As he says in the 2005 movie Constantine, where he was played by Keanu Reeves, “What would you do if you were sentenced to a prison where half the inmates were put there by you?”

Now, nearly 20 years later, Warner Bros. Discovery is going forward with a sequel to that movie, with Reeves returning to play the sardonic occult detective. Reeves’ take on Constantine is different from the best known one from DC Comics; for instance, his Constantine has neither a British accent nor blonde hair. On the other hand, he’s Keanu Reeves, so he can do what he wants.

This is fun news, although there is a flip side: according to Variety, Warner Bros. Discovery has cancelled a planned Constantine TV series that was going to air on HBO Max. HBO Max has also passed on Madame X, another proposed TV show in the “Justice League Dark.”

Keanu Reeves will return in a Constantine sequel

This is consistent with how Warner Bros. has operated since it merged with Discovery and came under the management of CEO David Zaslav, who made huge waves by cancelling Batgirl, an HBO Max movie that was basically already completed. In general, Zaslav wants to focus less on streaming and more on tentpole theatrical releases, so passing on an HBO Max show about John Constantine in favor of a movie sequel makes a lot of sense.

Bad Robot, the company behind the Constantine show as well as Madame X, intends to shop them around to other networks or streamers. Francis Lawrence, who directed the first Constantine movie as well as three of the four Hunger Games movies, will return for the sequel.

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