
Last month at Supanova we began the good fight for truth and justice.
On its maiden voyage, we put Fact Or Fiction? through its paces by testing out the truth behind the rumour that Taron Egerton was going to be the next Wolverine and now we’re back, and we’ve got a brand-new internet rumour to investigate!
CASEFILE #2
So what’s the goss?
Warner Bros. is bringing Keanu Reeves back to reprise the role of DC’s Master of the Dark Arts John Constantine in a sequel to his 2005 film.
Where did all this come from?
Warner Bros. has been circling the idea of bringing John Constantine back to the big screen as part of their DC film slate for quite a while now. Back in 2013 Hellboy and Pacific Rim director Guillermo Del Toro was hired to begin work on a live-action Justice League Dark film which would have seen Constantine assume the role of one of the film’s central characters. According to Del Toro, his script for Justice League Dark was completed, but he left the project in 2014.
1/2 SCREENPLAYS I have developed, fully written or co-written that have gone unproduced (so far):
THE WITCHES, JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, FANTASTIC VOYAGE, THE COUNT OF MONTECRISTO, MEPHISTO’S BRIDGE, PACIFIC RIM 2 (very different),— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 26, 2018
Following Del Toro’s departure, director Doug Liman (who was also attached to the now-defunct Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum) had taken over duties on Justice League Dark, and it was rumoured that Irish actor Colin Farrell was being eyed to take on the role of Constantine. Since then, Liman officially left the project in 2017 and instead Warner Bros. is reportedly looking to give Farrell another role in their upcoming The Batman film as the Penguin instead.
So whilst Supanova alumni Matt Ryan was tearing up the small screen, giving what many fans consider to be a pitch-perfect rendition of the comic book magic user, the big-screen DC slate was left Constantine-less once more.
So how did fan favourite Keanu Reeves get caught up in the talk of a sequel to his version of the character? Well, the responsibility for that actually falls directly at the feet of Reeves himself. Back in May 2019, Reeves was interviewed by Variety as part of the promotional tour for John Wick 3, and flat out told them that “I’ve always wanted to play John Constantine again. I just love that world, too, and I love that character. I just had a blast playing a character and in that world”.
Fans, of course, heard this loud and clear, and since then the internet has just taken that idea and run with it.
So what’s the verdict?
Okay so we fed the Supanova Scuttlebutt-o-meter©®™ (Patent Pending) with the relevant details, and as soon as it heard the name Keanu Reeves it just exploded in a display of fanboy euphoria.
After hosing it down and giving it time to recalibrate, the Supanova Scuttlebutt-o-meter©®™ (Patent Pending) came back with a 52.45% likelihood rating. It would seem that both Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. are falling over themselves to get Reeves on board, and Marvel’s Kevin Feige has admitted that “we talk to him for almost every film we make” – so it’s probably not too far a stretch to think that the folks over at DC would want to lock him down first, and why wouldn’t they when he’s been so public about his willingness to return to the character?
At the moment, Reeves’ slate is pretty full, and he has both John Wick 4 and The Matrix 4 currently sitting on the to-do list. Plus, he’s always super busy generally proving himself one of the nicest, and coolest people in Hollywood to boot, so it might take them a while to nail him down, but if Warner Bros. isn’t taking the idea of having him return to the role of Constantine seriously they might want to start doing so quick smart.
As such, it’s probably best to declare this rumour: POSSIBLE, BUT FAR FROM CONFIRMED