“Constantine” Director Says Keanu Reeves Sequel 'Will Be Very Rated R': We're 'Batting Around Ideas'

Francis Lawrence says the team behind the upcoming sequel, including Reeves, is "actively coming up with ideas to create a part two"

Like its predecessor, the upcoming sequel to Constantine will have an R rating.

Francis Lawrence — who directed the 2005 Keanu Reeves-led superhero horror flick and will return to helm Constantine 2 — revealed plans for the future installment in a recent interview for the BroBible Post Credit Podcast.

After saying the team behind the new film have "gain(ed) control" of the John Constantine character (Reeves, 59), Lawrence, 52, added, "Keanu, I, and Akiva Goldsman, who did the movie together originally, are batting around ideas, but we got sort of halted by the strike."

"However, we are actively coming up with ideas to create a part two, and it will be very rated R," added the filmmaker.

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Related: Keanu Reeves to Return for a 'Constantine' Sequel with Original Director Francis Lawrence

The original film, which is based on DC's Hellblazer comics, follows Constantine through his cursed existence fighting evil demons. The movie grossed over $200 million worldwide upon its release.

Goldsman will write the screenplay and produce the project through his Weed Road Pictures, alongside Bad Robot's J.J. Abrams and Hannah Minghella, according to Deadline, which was first to report the news of the upcoming sequel back in September 2022.

In his interview on the Post Credit Podcast, Lawrence — whose latest project is The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, in theaters Nov. 17 — said he didn't want to "[spill] too much" detail on the follow-up film.

But, he teased, his "instinct is" not so much to tell the story of "what happens two weeks after the last Constantine," but instead, of "an older version of John Constantine.”

Related: Keanu Reeves Calls 'John Wick: Chapter 4' His 'Hardest Physical Role' Ever: They 'Trained Me Up'

Reeves has never shied away from how much he has hoped to one day step back into the role of the trenchcoat-wearing hero.

In a December 2021 conversation with Stephen Colbert, he said Constantine was at the top of his list of characters he'd be stoked to return to.

"I would love to be John Constantine again," Reeves said. "I've tried."

During a 15th-anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Goldsman, 61, said they'd tried for years to make a Constantine sequel, but claimed the studio said the box-office earnings didn't warrant it.

"We wanted to make … a hard-R sequel," he said at the time. "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."

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