Constantine Director Wants Sequel to be Rated R

Though the character wasn’t really comic-accurate, Constantine starring Keanu Reeves has kind of a cult following, and word has it that DC is finally ready to push forward with a sequel. Though we’ve barely gotten updates with the film, director Francis Lawrence does share one thing that he wants to make different with the Constantine follow-up.

Talking to The Wrap, Lawrence expressed that he wanted to give Costantine that hard R –rating. He says, “If I was going to have to go have an R, I would have really made an R-rated movie. I would have made it much scarier and much more violent and I would have really made an R-rated movie… The idea is this time, at least for me, is to really go at it and make a real R-rated Constantine which is, I think, what people always wanted originally, not the PG-13 version that just happens to get an R.”

When the 2005 film came out, it was made with the intention to be PG-13, but the film still ended up being Rated R anyway. With audiences seemingly getting more desensitized to nudity and violence, I think that a Rated R Constantine film starring Reeves’ version of the character can finally happen.

Though there were a lot of departures when it comes to the original Hellblazer character, Reeves’ version manages to stand out on his own, being Reeves’ own brand of edgy and cool. With this sequel though, maybe Lawrence wants to make the character a bit funnier. He explains, “I think John Constantine is a is a funny character in a darkly comic kind of way and I would want to definitely add more of that sarcastic, cynical sense of humor to the story.”

Hopefully we don’t have to wait too long for an update on the Constantine sequel. In the meantime, you can watch out for Lawrence’s Slumberland coming to Netflix on Nov. 18.