Constantine Director Reveals Why We’re Finally Getting a Sequel (And Promises “Real R-Rated Movie”)

Constantine is coming back to the big screen in the not-too-distant future, with Keanu Reeves and director Francis Lawrence teaming back up to deliver a sequel to their 2005 cult classic. It has been nearly 20 years since Constantine first hit theaters, and the DC movie has only been gaining fans as time as gone by. So why did it take so long for the band to get back together for a second movie? According to Lawrence, they’ve been wanting to make a sequel ever since the first one hit theaters.

There were always conversations about a Constantine sequel, and the desire to make another one was there, but things didn’t start getting serious until about five years ago. While speaking to Lawrence about Constantine‘s first-ever 4K release for its 20th anniversary, we asked the filmmaker what finally got things moving on the long-awaited sequel.

“The truth is, somewhere around the the 15th anniversary or something, we did a Zoom and we all were discussing trying to get it up and going again,” Lawrence told ComicBook. “And again, we were just more active with it and finally got it past all these hurdle. And so we are now actively working on a script. So it’s really not that it’s just like, ‘Oh yeah, now we think the world is ready for it.’ 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.

“We’re now in a spot where we are actively working on a script.”

Lawrence, Reeves, and producer Akiva Goldsman had always wanted to explore the world of Constantine with another movie, especially after fans started coming around to the film in the years after its release.

They have also always had hopes of actually leaning into the R-rating they accidentally earned with the first movie. While Constantine was rated R, it was approached more like a PG-13 film. This time around, they’re leaning a lot more heavily into the freedom that the R-rating provides.

[RELATED: Tilda Swinton Addresses Potential Constantine Return]

“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,” Lawrence told us. “When the movie first came out, it didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, wow, the world is embracing our version of Constantine.’ There was a lot of criticism that we didn’t have the blonde English version of him, and that Keanu was wrong for it, and all those kinds of things. And I think that sort of opinion has really swung around and changed, but we always really loved the world and we always wanted to do a sequel.

“And so we had been thinking about it. We had also been given an R rating when we kind of made a PG-13 movie and followed all the PG-13 rules. 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.’”

There’s currently no release date or production start slated for the Constantine sequel, but the film remains in active development. The 4K remaster of the original Constantine is arriving on February 18, 2025, on the exact day of its 20th anniversary.