As is the case with any adaptation of a preexisting work, The Sandman TV series, which can be streamed with a Netflix subscription, made some tweaks to the original stories penned by Neil Gaiman. Among them was occult detective John Constantine being turned into Johanna Constantine, with Doctor Who alum Jenna Coleman pulling double duty as both her and her same-named ancestor from the 18th century. Speaking of Constantine, it was recently announced that Keanu Reeves will reprise his version of John Constantine, and Coleman had a delightful reaction to this piece of DC movies news.
In case you missed the announcement in September, Keanu Reeves will re-team with Constantine director Francis Lawrence for a sequel being written by Akira Goldsman. Reeves was the first actor to play John Constantine in live action, and two years after we learned Reeves and Lawrence were both up for tackling Constantine 2, now it’s happening! While being interviewed by THR, Jenna Coleman was asked about how it felt for her to “be sort of related” in a Constantine capacity and taking over the role in a sense, and she responded:
I know, I’ve been enjoying that. I’ve actually been walking around saying I’m basically Keanu Reeves.
Aside from being a woman, the present-day Johanna Constantine basically filled the same role in The Sandman TV series that John Constantine did in the original Sandman comics. After breaking free from his imprisonment at the hands of the Burgess family, Tom Sturridge’s Morpheus sought Constantine’s help with retrieving his pouch of mystical sand from her ex-girlfriend, and prior to that, we got to see Constantine put her magic to good use combating a demon. So yeah, Jenna Coleman is certainly within her rights to boast that she’s “basically” Keanu Reeves, which now has me wondering how she’d do playing a Neo or John Wick-like character.
The news about Constantine 2 followed a little over a month after The Sandman premiered on Netflix, so it’s certainly been a good time to be a Constantine fan lately. When Jenna Coleman was asked if she thought it was a “coincidence” that Warner Bros. confirmed Constantine 2 is moving forward shortly after The Sandman’s arrival, the actress said:
I couldn’t comment, but Constantine in his and her many forms seems to be making a bit of a comeback. I’d love to take credit for it!
While Jenna Coleman’s performance has certainly helped with boosting Constantine’s profile, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Matt Ryan’s played a big role with that too. After leading the short-lived Constantine TV series on NBC, he went on to reprise the character in The CW’s Arrowverse, as well as voice him in various animated projects. However, Ryan’s time as a live-action John Constantine appears to be over following the character’s exit in the Legends of Tomorrow Season 6 finale and the overall winding down of the main Arrowverse continuity. Between that and HBO Max passing a new Constantine series (which was going to star a person of color in the lead role), Coleman is now the leading figure in the TV/streaming front.
That said, even if The Sandman is renewed for a second season (Neil Gaiman has explained why that hasn’t happened yet), it’s unclear if Jenna Coleman will reprise the present-day Johanna Constantine, though as Sandman comics readers know, there’s more to story to tell for the 18th century Johanna. There’s also been calls from fans for Johanna Constantine to get a spinoff show, so if that happens, or if we get any significant update on the main show, CinemaBlend will pass along the big news.
