If you’re one of the many fans who’ve been riding the emotional rollercoaster of Constantine 2 updates over the years, you might want to brace yourself again because things aren’t exactly going smoothly behind the scenes.
Actor Peter Stormare, who famously played Lucifer in the 2005 cult classic, recently shed some light on what’s going on with the sequel… and it sounds like Keanu Reeves isn’t thrilled with what he’s seeing.
While promoting his latest project Stand Your Ground, Stormare was asked for an update on Constantine 2, and he didn’t sugarcoat the situation.
“It’s a lot of back and forth, because… I think Keanu [Reeves], who I know pretty good, is not so happy with the scripts and usually what comes out of the studios…”
That hesitation from Reeves is about protecting the soul of the film. According to Stormare, Reeves has a clear vision for what Constantine 2 should be:
“I think Keanu says, ‘I’ve done John Wick. This movie is spiritual. It’s about demons and regular people. And I wanted to keep it that way.’ And we talked about that… I think Keanu, he wants to do a sequel that is very close to the first one.”
That first film, directed by Francis Lawrence, wasn’t a massive hit out of the gate. It was dark, weird, spiritual, and very much its own thing. But over time, it found its audience, one that appreciated a grimy, noir-soaked world where angels and demons fought over souls, and the hero was a chain-smoking exorcist with one foot in the grave.
“The first one wasn’t that successful in the beginning. It became a sleeper and became a cult movie, and now it is one of the biggest cult movies ever.
“But to do a sequel, the studios want to have, you know, cars flying in the air. They want to have people doing flip-flops and fighting action scenes.”
Stormare hasn’t read the latest scripts himself, all of this is coming directly from conversations with Reeves. But from the sound of it, both actors agree that trying to turn Constantine 2 into a Marvel-style thrill ride would kill everything that made the original special.
“It turns into an action movie, and not like going deeper and deeper into the characters. I think he [Keanu] wants to do this character again, Constantine, as grounded as it was in the first one.
“It took a long time to become a cult movie, it really worked, and it will work on the audience again. You don’t have to add a lot of action and shootouts. You have other movies.
“Don’t turn it into big Marvel… [Don’t turn it] into us flying around in harnesses all the time and shooting each other up. Don’t bring in the big guns. Let it be.”
Lawrence, the director behind the original, seems to be on the same page. He’s gone on record in the past saying that if they’re doing a sequel, they want to do it their way, and go even darker and deeper this time.
“I certainly think there is a bigger fan base and certainly it’s become a kind of cult classic, which has been really exciting to see and very strange, but it’s something we’ve always loved…
“I’d say more than any of my other movies, Constantine has been something that I felt like was really worthy of a sequel. There is a world that you can really explore and there’s a character that we certainly loved and really wanted to explore…
“So we’re like, ‘F–k it, let’s go and do a sequel and really make an R-rated movie. Give us an R, let us make a real R-rated movie.’”
So where does that leave Constantine 2? Still in development, for now. But it’s clear that if Reeves is going to return, he’s only doing it on the right terms, and that’s reassuring because the last thing we need is another half-hearted reboot that forgets what made the original matter in the first place.
