SDCC 2024: Constantine Producer Reveals Controversial Biblical Reference Cut From Film

Originally, Peter Stormare's Lucifer would have worn Jesus's crown of thorns in the movie. Producers decided the visual wasn't worth angering Christians.

By Russ Burlingame

Almost 20 years after the first film's release, Warner Bros. is inching closer to a sequel to Constantine, but during an interview at San Diego Comic Con, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura looked back at the original. While there was plenty of Judeo-Christian imagery and lore in the movie, di Bonaventura told us not everything got past  Warner Bros. back when they were making it. di Bonaventura told ComicBook that there was one particular reference that got cut from the script amid controversy.

"Peter Stormare is the greatest devil ever," di Bonaventura told ComicBook, calling his take on the character "more twisted" than most others. "We debated something that would have, I think, had people completely boycotting at theaters...we talked about putting the crown of thorns on Satan, and I think every Christian would have stormed the gates of the theater, so we didn't. I think the white suit and the tar dripping -- that right there made it work."

According to di Bonaventura, the script is almost ready for the Keanu Reeves vehicle. The project, which fans and Reeves have long hoped for, finally seemed to be moving forward a couple years ago -- and then, like everything else at DC, it ground to a standstill when the studio had a series of high profile flops. Since then, Reeves said that he has spoken with executives James Gunn and Peter Safran, suggesting Constantine 2 is still very much in play -- but this is our first meaningful update in a while.

Constantine's future has been up in the air for a while, with rumors of Reeves' return going back years. At one point, J.J. Abrams was reportedly developing a raft of Justice League Dark-related projects, including a Constantine TV series, for HBO Max -- something that was so close to a reality that Warner Bros. made The CW kick Constantine off DC's Legends of Tomorrow -- but that fell apart even before James Gunn came to DC.

Back in February of 2023, writer Akiva Goldsman said that they were still breaking the story for the sequel.

Related:

"I was always working within a certain framework with John, or trying to. Legends is a really fun, wacky show, and now I don't have to look after John so much," Matt Ryan, who played the character for years on TV, told ComicBook in 2021, after his time as Constantine ended, and he was cast in a new role on Legends of Tomorrow. "So I have a lease on life there creatively, as an actor with this new character, that maybe I didn't have with John. It was a different challenge, obviously. And as a fan, I'm so excited to see where he's going to go now. And I can actually get excited about that, whether it's on TV, or whether it's in a movie, or Keanu's playing him, or what have you. I'm just like, 'Okay, what's John doing?' And I'm his biggest fan."

There is no release date yet for Constantine 2.

Trending Now: