Written By Sam Santiago
"Constantine", the supernatural thriller starring Keanu Reeves, is creeping back into public consciousness. No, not as a forgotten 2005 film gathering dust, but now streaming on HBO Max just as its long‑awaited sequel inches closer to reality.
Originally created by Alan Moore in the pages of Swamp Thing in the late 1980s, John Constantine was a sharp‑tongued, chain‑smoking occult detective whose cynicism and streetwise magic set him apart from other comic characters. His popularity led to the long‑running Hellblazer series under DC’s Vertigo label, where Constantine became one of comics’ most enduring mystical antiheroes.
When "Constantine" hit theaters in 2005, director Francis Lawrence’s adaptation delivered a brooding mix of religious horror and comic‑inspired lore. Reeves brought a weary gravitas to the role, playing a man damned with knowledge of the afterlife’s darker corridors. With visuals that stunned audiences and a portrayal of Satan in the most bad-ass way possible by acclaimed actor Peter Stormare, it still didn't get much attention upon release. Though it didn’t explode at the box office, the film found an audience over time, accumulating a devoted cult following that embraced its atmosphere and mythology.
In 2014, a Constantine TV series starring Matt Ryan offered a version closer to the comics, but it struggled to find an audience and was canceled after one season. Still, the character remained beloved by fans across comic and onscreen iterations.
Now that Constantine is back on HBO Max, a new generation can discover Reeves’s take or revisit it with fresh eyes. The timing couldn’t be more intriguing: audiences are more receptive to darker, genre‑bending fare, and the sequel has real momentum.
Unlike past speculation, "Constantine 2" has moved beyond mere hope and rumor. In 2025, Reeves confirmed that he, Lawrence, and producer Akiva Goldsman recently developed a story and pitched it to DC Studios, receiving approval to move forward into script writing—an official green light that marks the most substantial progress for the project yet, as told to us by Bounding Into Comics
WATCH THE ORIGINAL TRAILER FOR "CONSTANTINE" BELOW
Director Francis Lawrence has echoed that the sequel is “closer than ever,” with the creative team actively working on ideas drawn from the comics and their own passion for the character. While co‑head of DC Studios James Gunn has said he’s discussed the project with Reeves and spoken positively about the team, he also noted he hasn’t read a finished script yet from a report from GamesRadar.com
What all this means is that "Constantine 2" is no longer a whisper from development hell but an actual project with studio backing and the original key players on board. Whether it ends up as a theatrical release, streaming exclusive, or part of DC Studios’ Elseworlds banner remains to be seen, but the groundwork is laid.
Streaming the original "Constantine" now gives fans and newcomers alike a chance to reacquaint themselves with John Constantine’s world of demons, angels, and moral ambiguity—just in time for a sequel that could finally bring this cult favorite into the spotlight in a big way.