Despite early enthusiasm from Constantine director Francis Lawrence and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, the long-awaited sequel to the 2005 supernatural noir has hit a speed bump — and not the thrilling kind. While Lawrence recently said that he and Keanu Reeves were "super, super excited" and that the team was "closer than ever" to making Constantine 2 a reality, new developments suggest things may not be progressing as smoothly behind the scenes.
The latest update comes courtesy of actor Peter Stormare — who memorably played Lucifer in the original film — speaking to The Direct. According to Stormare, the current script has sparked a fair bit of "back and forth," with Reeves reportedly "not so happy" with how the sequel is shaping up. The issue? A fundamental shift in tone.
"Keanu had envisioned the movie as being once again about demons and regular people," Stormare said, hinting that the draft may be leaning too far into blockbuster territory. "To do a sequel, the studios want to have cars flying in the air. They want to have people doing flip-flops and fighting action scenes."
Goldsman, best known for a writing career that spans from the critically derided Batman & Robin to his Oscar-winning work on A Beautiful Mind, had reportedly finished the script. But it now appears that major rewrites will be necessary to bring it closer to Reeves’ vision — one more aligned with the eerie, character-driven atmosphere of the original film, which transformed its mixed theatrical reception into cult status thanks to home release and streaming.
The first Constantine defied the odds. It wasn’t supposed to work, but it did — largely because it embraced its weirdness with a straight face and a smouldering chain-smoking exorcist at its centre. Whether lightning can strike twice is uncertain, but one thing’s clear: Keanu Reeves isn’t interested in trading demons for drone shots and CGI mayhem.
