Keanu Reeves still wants a Constantine sequel: 'I've tried'

There's no one who wants to see the character of John Constantine return more than the person who played John Constantine himself.

While visiting Stephen Colbert to promote one of his most well-known recurring franchises, The Matrix Resurrections, Keanu Reeves was asked if there were any characters he wanted to return to that weren't already in the works.

"I would love to be John Constantine again," he told Colbert. But unfortunately, that's not as easy as stating the fact. When Colbert pressed on, joking about having a guest-starring role in the possible future sequel, Reeves inferred that he hasn't had much luck with getting a sequel made.

"I've tried," he admitted to the collectively sad reaction of the studio audience. "I would love to."

Reeves originally played DC's chain-smoking, bad boy detective in the 2005 comic book film, directed by Francis Lawrence and based on the Hellblazer comics from DC. Although Constantine fell short of box office expectations, it became a beloved film among Reeves' fans as well as something of a cult classic.

But as Reeves noted, a sequel for the film isn't exactly something Hollywood is pushing for despite him saying for years that he wants to do one and fairly recent reports that one was in the works. In November 2020, actor Peter Stormare, who played Lucifer, made an Instagram post seemingly hinting at a sequel announcement. Nothing was ever confirmed by Warner Bros., which owns the screen rights to DC properties like Constantine, however.

During the 15th anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con that same year, producer Akiva Goldsman also discussed the numerous attempts made to continue John Constantine's story and noted that despite the fact the movie did "fairly well," the box office wasn't enough to impress the studio.

"We wanted to make... a hard-R sequel. I think we'd probably make it tomorrow. Yes, we tried a lot of different ways to find... it was always to the studios who made it, which were Village Roadshow and Warner Bros. It was always a little bit of a feathered fish," Goldsman told the panel, hosted by Collider.

During his interview, Reeves also promoted his comic book BRZRKR, the series he conceived and wrote with BOOM! Studios, which debuted earlier this year. And when Colbert brought up a meta moment referenced in the pages of Vol. 1 of his story — where the character can be seen sitting forlornly on the bench in the rain — Reeves revealed that yes, that was a reference to his popular "Sad Keanu" meme.

"I'm just eating a sandwich!" he told Colbert, when he asked what was going through his head at the time of the photo. "I was thinking. I had some stuff going on. I was hungry."

Reeves also admitted that he had no idea Ron Garney, BRKRKR's artist, was going to put in the reference. And despite the fact that he admitted to Colbert that he has no idea why he's so meme-able in the first place, he loves the inclusion.

"I think it's kind of meta," he told Colbert. "But that's life and art, right?"

Watch the interview above.

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