Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: constantine, constantine 2, dc, movies, Warner Bros

Francis Lawrence Is Still Working On Constantine 2 After DC Shakeups

Published Thu, 10 Nov 2022 11:47:10 -0600

There have been some serious shakeups at Warner Bros. Discovery in the last couple of months. Since August, nearly complete high-profile films and television shows have been canceled for tax purposes, the president of DC Films left his contract two months early, and recently Warner Bros. Discovery brought on new leadership for DC Studios in the form of James Gunn and Peter Safran. Since then, the status of several projects has remained in limbo, but it does look like one of them is still in the works despite all of the shakeups. We finally got word that Constantine 2 was in the works last month, and director Francis Lawrence recently spoke to ComicBook.com, and it sounds like the movie is still happening despite the chaos. He even confirmed that Keanu Reeves is in on the project.

"We don't have a script, but Keanu, me, and Akiva [Goldsman], who all worked on the first one together, have all been trying over the years to get another one going," Lawrence tells us. "it's been tricky because of the DC/Vertigo world and who owns the character and who has control over the characters, trying to get the right people to go forward. We've got that now, and now we need the story. We'd all love to do it."

Francis Lawrence Is Still Working On Constantine 2 After DC Shakeups — Francis Lawrence at the Apple TV+'s "See" Premiere Screening at the Village Theater on October 21, 2019, in Westwood, CA. Editorial credit: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com

Constantine 2 Has Been A Long Time Coming

Constantine was released seventeen years ago in 2005 and was part of the second wave of comic book movies becoming mainstream, which helped make the genre as dominant as it is today. While X-Men, Spider-Man, and Blade were the 1-2-3 punch that kicked things off, it was things like Hellboy in 2004, Constantine and Batman Begins in 2005, and X-2 in 2003 that really cemented that foundation. Hellboy and Constantine, doing well, proved that there was an audience beyond superheroes, much in the same way Blade did in 1998. Constantine brought in $230 million worldwide on a budget of $70-$100 million, which is pretty damn solid, and it has garnered an extremely loyal cult following over the years. People have been begging for a sequel for years, and it has been rumored that one has been in the works for a long time. In September 2022, after over a month of pure chaos over at Warner Bros. Discovery, they finally announced that a sequel was in the works. They could use an easy win, and this should be an easy win.