It’s not a good day to be a fan of the Keanu Reeves Constantine movie.
According to Deadline, Francis Galluppi has been tapped by DC Studios to pen a new Constantine movie, which is expected to be part of the DC Universe. The project is in very early development.
Created by writer Alan Moore and artists Steve Bissette and John Totleben, John Constantine debuted in The Saga of the Swamp Thing #37 in 1985. He is a working-class British detective with expertise in magic and the occult and a penchant for grift.
Constantine was first played in live-action by Reeves in Francis Lawrence’s 2005 film, which reimagined the character as an American based in Los Angeles. Matt Ryan played a far more accurate version of Constantine in a self-titled TV series on NBC that ran for a single season during the 2014-15 season.
Ryan later reprised the role in the Arrowverse, beginning with a guest appearance in Arrow and later a series regular role in Legends of Tomorrow. He has also voiced Constantine in select DC animated movies, like Justice League Dark and Green Lantern: Beware My Power, as well as in the adult animated series Harley Quinn.
Galluppi is an American filmmaker whose debut feature, the crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County, was released in 2023. His second feature will be Evil Dead Wrath, a standalone installment in Sam Raimi’s beloved horror franchise. Wrath is based on an original story that Galluppi developed and brought to Raimi and his team in 2024. Galluppi wrote and directed Evil Dead Wrath, which Warner Bros. is set to release in theaters in 2028.
In a statement to Deadline years ago, Raimi described Galluppi as “a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence.”
Is Constantine 2 Dead at DC Studios?
This news doesn’t exactly bode well for the long-gestating Constantine 2, which had been greenlit back in 2022, just a few months before James Gunn and Peter Safran were brought in to lead DC Studios. Reeves and Lawrence were attached to return as lead star and director, respectively, with Akiva Goldsman set to pen the screenplay.
After Gunn and Safran’s appointment, Reeves stated that he had spoken to them and was told that the sequel would still be made. It would fall under the DC Elseworlds brand, which is reserved for projects not set in the DCU. However, four years have now passed, and this reboot definitely makes a strong case that DC Studios has ultimately decided to pass on Constantine 2 in favor of a version that can be part of the DCU.
Are you disappointed that Reeves’ Constantine 2 is seemingly no longer in development at DC Studios? Who would you cast as the DCU’s John Constantine? Tell us down in the comments with your Disqus account!
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