‘Constantine’ Director Francis Lawrence Provides Concrete Update On Long-Awaited Sequel (EXCLUSIVE)

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When Constantine was first released in 2005, the film was largely dismissed by critics and comic book fans alike. 15-plus-years later, however, the Keanu Reeves-starring film has not only developed into a cult classic but is on the road to a sequel.

Speaking to BroBible’s Post Credit Podcast ahead of the release of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Lawrence — who made his feature directorial debut with the Reeves-starring film — provided an update on the long-awaited sequel.

“Those kinds of dark DC characters, Vertigo characters, have bounced around, and we’ve tried to gain control. We finally have, and Keanu, I, and Akiva Goldsman, who did the movie together originally, are batting around ideas, but we got sort of halted by the strike. However, we are actively coming up with ideas to create a part two, and it will be very rated R,” Lawrence told us.

“Now, is that a conversation that involves James Gunn and Peter Safran at DC Films?” we asked.

“I mean, it has because they’re part of, you know, people who have controlled the rights, but really, this is a project that Akiva, Keanu, and I are doing,” Lawrence explained.

When we pointed out that John Constantine has the advantage of being a character that actually ages in the comics, Lawrence indicated that’s a quality that they’ll be leaning into.

“Without spilling too much, I would say, yes, my instinct is, as of now, the idea we have is that we would not be pretending that this is, you know, what happens two weeks after the last Constantine, but that this is an older version of John Constantine.”

Released in 2005, Constantine also starred Rachel Weisz, Tilda Swinton (both of whom became Academy winners), Dijmon Hounsou (an Oscar nominee), Shia LaBeouf, and Peter Stormare alongside Keanu Reeves. While the film was initially met with subpar reviews — it currently has a 46% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes — it did earn $230 million against a reported budget of $70-$100 million and has become a beloved cult film in the years since.

As for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the Hunger Games prequel — set 64 years before the events of the original 2012 film — will be hitting movie theaters in the United States on Friday, November 17. The film stars Rachel Zegler and Tom Blythe, with the supporting cast being filled out by the likes of Peter Dinklage, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andrés Rivera, Jason Schwartzman, and Viola Davis.

You can check out the official trailer for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes below.