CONSTANTINE 2 Director Francis Lawrence Slams James Gunn and Peter Safran for Blocking Keanu Reeves Sequel

Francis Lawrence has been trying to drag Keanu Reeves back to Hell for another round of supernatural chaos in Constantine 2 for over 20 years, and he's finally pointing fingers at the people who were standing in the way.

According to Lawrence, former DC Studios bosses James Gunnand Peter Safran were major obstacles to getting the long-awaited sequel made. Now that the two have reportedly been fired, the filmmaker believes he and Reeves might finally get their shot.

Just last week, news broke that DC Studios was developing a new John Constantine movie with Evil Dead Wrath filmmaker Francis Galluppi, leaving fans wondering what happened to the sequel that Lawrence and Reeves have spent years trying to make.

Constantine 2 was originally announced before Gunn and Safran took control of DC Studios. Gunn had publicly appeared supportive of the project, which was expected to exist outside the main DC Universe as an Elseworlds movie.

Unfortunately, nothing ever came of it, despite Lawrence and Reeves repeatedly expressing their interest in returning. While promoting The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, Lawrence spoke with Collider and made it clear that the problem wasn't a lack of interest from the creative team.

He explained: "Well, I’ll tell you this. Not that I want anybody to lose their jobs, so this is not like a schadenfreude kind of thing, but I will say that we’ve been trying to make Constantine 2 for 20-something years, and we have an idea, and we have a script, and we’ve been wanting to make it, and the people that were at DC were an impediment to us making it."

That's a pretty direct accusation, especially coming from a filmmaker who has spent decades working within the Hollywood studio system.

Lawrence continued: "So, we are now more hopeful as of yesterday’s news that maybe now there will be another opportunity. But again, we’ve been trying to make this for 20-something years, and there’s always been obstacles in the road to making it, and it’s not me, it’s not Keanu, it’s not Akiva.

“J.J. [Abrams] is on it, as well. We all want to do it. So, it’s really going to be people at Paramount, Warner, whoever’s running DC now, getting everybody on board to say, like, 'Hey, we can do a sequel of our version of Constantine.'"

Lawrence's comments raise questions about Gunn's approach to managing DC Studios. There have been reports of creative disagreements involving Supergirl director Craig Gillespie, although the extent of those alleged clashes remains unclear.

It's also interesting that Supergirl was reportedly absent from Gunn's farewell remarks about his DC projects. As for Constantine 2, there's still no guarantee the movie will happen. A new leadership team could decide to pursue Galluppi's Constantine project instead, or potentially find room for both versions.

I'd love to see Reeves get another crack at John Constantine. The original 2005 movie has developed a devoted following, and there's plenty of unfinished business worth exploring with that version of the character.

After two decades of fighting to make this movie, Lawrence and Reeves deserve a straight answer from the studio. Hopefully, that answer is finally yes.