Last Updated on February 20, 2025 by Angel Melanson
“What if I told you that God and the devil made a wager, a kind of standing bet for the souls of all mankind?” Those are the words of one Mr. John Constantine, uttered by one Mr. Keanu Reeves in 2005’s Constantine. Those aren’t exactly the words one expects to hear from a mainstream, big-budget comic book movie but 20 years ago, Warner Bros. and director Franchise Lawrence took one heck of a big swing by taking a trip to hell in the DC Universe.
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On this day 20 years ago, Constantine hit theaters, based on the Hellblazer comics published by DC/Vertigo. Created by Alan Moore and Stephen R. Bissette, the character of John Constantine first appeared in the comics in 1985 as a supporting character in Swamp Thing. As these things often go, Constantine eventually got his own solo series.
Flash forward to the early 2000s. Thanks to the likes of Blade, X-Men and Spider-Man, superheroes have become the hottest thing in Hollywood. Reeves, coming off of The Matrix trilogy, was at the height of his powers in Hollywood. So, after years of on again, off again development, a Constantine film finally started coming together, with a then relatively untested Lawrence at the helm, with his serving as his feature directorial debut.
The film as we know it takes place in Los Angeles circa 2005 and centers on John Constantine (Reeves), a globetrotting, renegade occultist who has literally been to hell and back. He enters our mortal soil to help a skeptical policewoman investigate the mysterious suicide of her twin sister, revealing a world filled with demons and angels that is secretly playing out all around us.
“In the script originally, it was just kind of this void. This black void. And I just thought, whatever version I come up with is always going to be a void, and I’ve seen that before,” Lawrence told Horror.com in 2005, explaining how he came up with his version of Hell for the film. “Wherever you exist in any given time, there’s sort of the Hell version of where you are and Heaven version of where you are. It worked nicely, because it just gave us a geography. It sort of grounded it a little bit; it made it more tangible.”
What Lawrence ultimately crafted was a wild, R-rated, $100 million-budgeted horror film that also happens to sort of be a superhero film. One tha boasted an A-list cast that also includes the likes of Tilda Swinton and Rachel Weisz. It feels like one of those moments where a director gets away with something. Context is needed though. At the time, DC wasn’t what it is today. Batman Begins hadn’t even hit theaters yet. The notion of a cinematic universe wouldn’t be born until 2008 when Iron Man arrived. It was a very different time when Hollywood was still figuring out how to make superheroes work with regularity.
When the film first arrived in 2005, it was met with a somewhat mixed response. “Story is what’s lacking in Constantine, or at least a coherent or involving one,” Michael Gingold wrote for Fangoria in his original review of Constantine. That, coupled with the fact that it opened as Will Smith’s Hitch was in the middle of a very impressive box office run, didn’t do it too many favors out of the gate, opening to $29 million, far less than we’re accustomed to in the realm of comic book films.
The R-rated DC flick finished its run with $230 million worldwide which would have been mighty impressive for something cut from this cloth, but given the massive budget, it was by no means a hit for the studio at the time. Yet, as we often see, a movie’s fate is often not determined by its initial run.
Constantine has since developed a pretty passionate following. So much so that Warner Bros. began developing a sequel in 2022, with Lawrence returning to direct and Reeves to star. Unfortunately, not a lot has happened since the initial announcement as the DC Universe is in the midst of a big reboot, but Reeves is certainly game for it.
“I’ve always wanted to play John Constantine again,” Reeves said in a 2019 interview with Variety. “I just love that world, too, and I love that character. I just had a blast playing a character and [playing] in that world.” Lawrence has also said that he wants to deliver on the R-rating with Constantine 2, should it actually happen.
For more, check out some goods from Fango’s archives on Constantine…
