John Constantine has survived demonic bargains, supernatural conspiracies and more near-death experiences than any reasonable person should endure. His Hollywood career is proving nearly as complicated.
DC Studios is developing another movie based on the occult detective, with Francis Galluppi attached to write the screenplay. Deadline reported the news on November 4, 2026, describing the project as being in its earliest stages.
Galluppi previously directed The Last Stop in Yuma County and is writing and directing Evil Dead Wrath, the upcoming installment in Sam Raimi's horror franchise.
The nature of his involvement requires a distinction. TheWrap has described Galluppi as the filmmaker who will direct the new Constantine movie, while Deadline and The Playlist specifically identify him as the writer. Neither of those latter reports establishes that he will also direct.
With no formal confirmation from DC Studios, Galluppi's writing assignment is the strongest corroborated part of the announcement.
There is no official casting news, production schedule or release date. The studio declined to comment on the reports.
That makes this a development story rather than a confirmed production announcement. It also raises a difficult question about the long-awaited Constantine sequel that Keanu Reeves and director Francis Lawrence have been trying to make.
Francis Galluppi brings an independent filmmaker's perspective
Galluppi first attracted considerable attention with The Last Stop in Yuma County, a crime thriller that premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2023 before receiving a commercial release in 2024.
The film follows a group of strangers whose paths intersect at an isolated Arizona diner. A seemingly ordinary situation becomes increasingly volatile as criminal intentions, conflicting personalities and limited opportunities for escape turn the location into a pressure cooker.
Much of the tension comes from delayed confrontation. Galluppi allows characters to make questionable decisions while the audience understands that violence is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid.
That ability to control suspense attracted the attention of Sam Raimi and his production partners.
Galluppi subsequently joined the Evil Dead franchise after developing an original story and presenting it to Raimi's team. The resulting project, Evil Dead Wrath, represents a significant step into major studio filmmaking.
His involvement with Constantine is therefore noteworthy even before the story has been revealed.
A filmmaker known for tension, morally compromised characters and sudden violence could be well suited to the supernatural detective's world. Constantine frequently survives not through overwhelming power but through deception and decisions that place other people at risk.
That potential connection is an editorial observation, not a confirmed description of Galluppi's screenplay.
Constantine has always been more dangerous than heroic
John Constantine debuted in 1985 in The Saga of the Swamp Thing #37, created by writer Alan Moore alongside artists Stephen Bissette and John Totleben.
He initially appeared as an enigmatic British occult specialist who could guide Swamp Thing through supernatural mysteries and dangers that ordinary people barely understood.
Constantine's visual identity became immediately recognizable: blond hair, a trench coat, cigarettes and the weary expression of someone who has seen far too much.
But his defining characteristic has never been his appearance.
He is a magician, investigator and skilled manipulator whose greatest advantage is often his willingness to exploit the weaknesses of enemies far more powerful than himself.
The long-running Hellblazer comic, launched in 1988, established him as one of DC's most morally complicated protagonists.
Writers including Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis and Mike Carey developed stories in which supernatural threats were closely connected to social conflict, personal guilt, addiction and political violence.
Unlike a conventional superhero, Constantine often solves a problem without emerging as an admirable figure. He can manipulate a demon into defeat while sacrificing the trust or safety of somebody who believed in him.
His stories repeatedly ask whether surviving a supernatural threat is worth the human consequences.
That moral instability makes him unusually suitable for horror. The danger is not simply the monster waiting in the darkness; it is also the possibility that the protagonist already knows how to escape and will make someone else pay the price.
DC is exploring more than traditional superhero stories
The reported project emerges as DC Studios expands the kinds of films being developed around its comic book properties.
James Gunn and Peter Safran are building a shared cinematic and television universe, but the company's approach also leaves room for different genres and production scales.
Clayface provides a recent example. The Batman-associated character received a movie built around body-horror elements rather than a conventional superhero action structure.
Industry reports in November 2026 place Clayface's worldwide theatrical earnings above $90 million. The film has consequently become a useful point of reference for discussions about DC characters supporting darker, more specialized projects.
Constantine would be a natural candidate for that kind of experimentation.
His comics involve possession, occult rituals, demonic bargains, supernatural manipulation and stories where the most disturbing consequences are psychological rather than spectacular.
However, no official information establishes that Galluppi's Constantine will follow Clayface's budget model, rating or approach to horror.
The new project's position within DC's wider plans also remains unclear.
What happens to Constantine 2 with Keanu Reeves?
The announcement arrives against the background of a separate project that has been discussed for years.
Keanu Reeves portrayed John Constantine in Francis Lawrence's 2005 film, which relocated the character from his British comic-book surroundings to Los Angeles.
The adaptation retained the supernatural detective's troubled relationship with death, Heaven and Hell while giving the material a distinctive Hollywood treatment.
Although its initial critical reception was mixed, Constantine developed a devoted audience over time. Reeves repeatedly expressed an interest in returning to the character.
Warner Bros. revived plans for a sequel during the 2020s, with Lawrence expected to direct and Akiva Goldsman working on the screenplay.
In 2025, Reeves said that a proposed story had received approval from DC Studios to proceed into further script development.
Lawrence also discussed the team's continued enthusiasm for the sequel. Despite those developments, the project had not entered production by the time the Galluppi news emerged.
It would be tempting to treat the new writing assignment as evidence that the Reeves film has been abandoned.
There is no confirmed basis for that conclusion.
Deadline did not explicitly announce the cancellation of Constantine 2, and DC Studios has not clarified whether Galluppi's project is independent of the earlier sequel, an alternative version of it or part of a broader change in development strategy.
The relationship between the two projects remains unresolved.
Keanu Reeves and Matt Ryan established different screen identities
The 2005 film remains the character's most prominent standalone theatrical appearance.
Reeves played Constantine as a physically exhausted supernatural investigator whose cynical attitude concealed a desperate struggle over his own soul.
The character received another major live-action interpretation in 2014, when Matt Ryan starred in NBC's Constantine television series.
That show lasted one season, but Ryan subsequently reprised the role in the CW's superhero television universe, particularly through Legends of Tomorrow.
His version drew more directly from the British setting, appearance and sarcastic personality associated with the comics.
Both interpretations demonstrated that Constantine can support different approaches.
The character can anchor a supernatural detective story, a more conventional occult adventure or an unsettling horror narrative centered on moral compromise.
Neither Reeves nor Ryan has been announced for Galluppi's project.
There is also no confirmed casting search for a replacement actor.
Until DC Studios provides further details, describing the film as a reboot with a new performer would be premature.
Could Constantine join the main DC Universe?
Another unanswered question concerns continuity.
DC Studios is developing interconnected stories across film and television, but not every production based on DC characters necessarily needs to belong to the same shared narrative.
Constantine has strong connections to the publisher's wider supernatural mythology.
Swamp Thing, Zatanna, Deadman and other occult figures provide opportunities for stories that could eventually overlap with different corners of DC's fictional universe.
But Constantine also has decades of self-contained comic-book material.
His most effective stories often require little connection to conventional superheroes. A seemingly minor supernatural case can become a devastating confrontation with ancient powers, personal guilt or consequences from his past.
An independent film could therefore explore the character's moral ambiguity without establishing an elaborate connection to other DC releases.
A shared-universe approach could instead introduce audiences to the magical side of DC and potentially establish relationships with other supernatural characters.
Neither strategy has been confirmed.
The studio has not announced whether Galluppi's screenplay is intended for the central DC Universe or a separate continuity.
The movie remains in very early development
At present, the project has one reliably reported creative attachment: Francis Galluppi as screenwriter.
The director's position, cast, production budget and schedule remain unconfirmed.
There is no release date, official movie poster, trailer or production photography.
Existing illustrations of Constantine and images from earlier screen adaptations represent the character's history rather than the visual identity of the new film.
The next meaningful development will be confirmation from DC Studios regarding the project's creative team, its place within the company's wider strategy and its relationship to the Reeves sequel.
For now, the occult detective is back in Hollywood development. Whether this new version escapes the industry's long-running uncertainty remains to be seen.
