Contantine: Director Reveals If There Were Plans To Include Other DC Characters

With JJ Abrams doing a Justice League Dark series for HBO Max in the near future and Matt Ryan appearing on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, the idea of teaming John Constantine up with other superheroes from around the DC multiverse seems omnipresent in live-action. That never came up in the 2005 Constantine movie, where a character’s subplot was actually removed entirely in order to make Constantine feel more like a tortured loner who didn’t have people to turn to. So it maybe isn’t a surprise that, when the movie was in production, there was never any notion of bringing other DC characters into the fold.

During the film’s reunion panel at Comic-Con @ Home, star Keanu Reeves, writer Akiva Goldsman, and director Francis Lawrence fielded some questions about the movie. Among them? Whether there were ever plans to bring in a larger DC Universe.

“Not while I was on,” Lawrence said, while Goldsman shook his head in agreement. “While I was on, the focus was on Constantine, and Constantine’s world — so all of the characters that surround him, but not weaving in any of the classic DC heroes.”

While Reeves joked that Midnite and Chas counted as other DC characters, the intent of the question was likely to gauge whether characters like Swamp Thing, in whose comics Constantine made his first appearance, could have been on the table. At the time, Swamp Thing was about ten years removed from a successful 3-season TV series on USA Network, and was likely DC’s best-known supernatural character for non-comics fans. After a movie, a TV series, and a series of appearances on other shows, one could argue that title now goes to Constantine himself.

Unfortunately for fans who heard sequel rumors online and tuned in to see if there would be an announcement, no such thing happened — althoguh they did admit that they are always still asked about it by fans, and Goldsman said that they had so many ideas over the years that they could start one “tomorrow” if given the green light.

The next DC film will be Wonder Woman 1984, which will be in theaters on October 2. Reeves will next be seen in Bill & Ted Face the Music, which is currently slated for a late August release. Fans can get more details on both this month, with Wonder Woman 1984 having a presentation at DC’s FanDome virtual convention while Comic Con International’s Comic-Con@Home event will feature Bill & Ted Face the Music.