Even in spite of a fan-favorite TV show, John Constantine is a character synonymous with Keanu Reeves. Ever since he portrayed the character as a grounded man of few words who hunts mighty demons and has a direct connection to both God and the Devil in Constantine, his portrayal continued to influence the other live-action versions. So, when Constantine 2 was announced, fans were ecstatic, but the updates on the movie that is currently in development have been far and few. In a new interview, Peter Stormare, who portrayed a white-suit-clad devil in the original film, disclosed that Reeves isn’t happy with the sequel’s scripts.
“It’s a lot of back and forth, because… I think Keanu [Reeves], which I know pretty good, is not so happy with the scripts and usually what comes out of the studios…” Stormare revealed. Given that the original movie was a sleeper hit and, in time, became a cult classic, the studios are hoping to add more action to the film. “But to do a sequel, the studios want to have, you know, cars flying in the air. They want to have people doing flip-flops and fighting action scenes.”
Stormare revealed that while Reeves takes pride in a grounded version of the character, the studio wants big changes that might not sit well with the audience, “I think Keanu is very proud of that. He was fighting for it to be a character that he loved and wanted to develop.” And its not only Constantine, who studio wants to change, but also the supporting cast, “They wanted to dress me up like, you know, like a devil with a tail and a pitchfork and whatever, but we were really fighting for me to have, like, an off-white suit and do it very simple,” Stormare revealed.
Keanu Reeves Wants ‘Constantine 2’ to be a Spiritual Story
While Stormare hasn’t seen the action-heavy scripts, he revealed that “Keanu wants to do a sequel that is very close to the first one. And I think Keanu says, ‘I’ve done ‘John Wick.’ This movie is spiritual. It’s about demons and regular people. And I wanted to keep it that way’.” Fans’ can’t agree more with Reeves as it’s not the slick action or CGI demons that made fans fall in love with the original feature but the simplicity of the story, grounded yet gritty performances, and panache that actors brought to their characters that made Constantine so memorable. So it’s not wrong for Reeves to feel that fans would appreciate a similar tone over action.
“It turns into an action movie, and not like going deeper and deeper into the characters. I think he wants to do his character again, Constantine, as grounded as it was in the first one. It took a long time for you to become a cult movie, it really worked, and it will work on the audience again. You don’t have to add a lot of action and shootouts. You have other movies. Don’t turn it into big Marvel… [Don’t turn it] into us flying around in harnesses all the time and shooting each other up. Don’t bring in the big guns. Let it be.”
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Source: The Direct
