DC Studios Taps Evil Dead Wrath’s Francis Galluppi to Write New Constantine Movie

DC Studios is developing a new Constantine movie, and it has hired Evil Dead Wrath director Francis Galluppi to write the script. Deadline broke the news Wednesday, November 4, that the project is in very early development, with no director or actor attached yet beyond Galluppi’s writing assignment.

That timing matters: DC and star Keanu Reeves have spent the past year talking up a different Constantine sequel, and this new film is not that project. Here is what’s actually confirmed, what’s still a separate rumor, and why DC suddenly has two John Constantine movies in the works at once.

What DC Studios Actually Confirmed

Per Deadline’s report, Galluppi is attached to write a new Constantine film for DC Studios. That’s it so far — no title, no director, no cast, and co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran haven’t given a timeline. Collider and ComicBook.com confirmed the same framing: this is a writing assignment in “very early development,” not a greenlit production.

Galluppi is best known for writing and directing 2023’s The Last Stop in Yuma County, and he’s currently directing Evil Dead Wrath, the seventh film in the Evil Dead franchise and a prequel to the 1981 original, produced by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. That film began shooting in February 2026 and is set for an April 2028 release. Writing a Constantine script is his first confirmed work inside a major superhero universe.

So What Happened to Keanu Reeves’ Constantine 2?

It’s still alive, as far as anyone has said publicly — and it’s a separate movie. Reeves has been developing a direct sequel to 2005’s Constantine with that film’s director, Francis Lawrence, since pitching DC Studios a treatment in 2024. As recently as October 2025, Reeves said “another draft of the script came in,” and James Gunn told Deadline around the same time, “I’ve discussed it on and off. I’ve discussed it with Keanu… I have not read any script yet.”

The Reeves sequel is widely expected to land under DC’s Elseworlds banner — the label DC Studios uses for stories, like Matt Reeves’ Batman films, that sit outside the mainline DC Universe timeline Gunn and Safran are building. Galluppi’s new script, by contrast, has not been tied to Elseworlds by anyone involved, which is the detail fueling speculation that DC is testing a second, DCU-continuity version of the character rather than simply developing Reeves’ sequel under a different writer.

Nobody at DC has said the Reeves project is canceled. Until someone does, the honest read is that two Constantine scripts exist at the same studio at the same time, aimed at two different corners of DC’s output.

The Character Has Been Here Before

John Constantine started as a supporting character in Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run in 1985 before getting his own ongoing series, Hellblazer, under DC’s mature-readers Vertigo imprint in 1988. Keanu Reeves first played him on screen in 2005’s Constantine, which grossed $230.9 million worldwide on a $100 million budget and holds a 47% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes — a reputation that has softened considerably on rewatch in the two decades since. Matt Ryan took over the role for NBC’s Constantine in 2014, a 13-episode series NBC canceled in 2015 over low ratings; Ryan kept playing the character afterward on The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow and in several animated DC projects. Readers who want the full rundown can see our comics-vs-screen breakdown of the character.

Why DC Wants Constantine Again Right Now

DC Studios’ output under Gunn and Safran has leaned into horror-adjacent material this year, and this year’s Clayface showed there’s an audience for it. Constantine, a chain-smoking occult detective who trades in demons and dead-but-not-gone friends, is the character most likely to anchor a Justice League Dark-style corner of the DCU if Gunn wants one — our guide to that team lays out who else would belong in it, and our list of the best Vertigo comics of all time covers the imprint Constantine came from.

A second, DCU-aligned Constantine movie also gives DC a version of the character it fully owns going forward, separate from whatever happens with the Elseworlds-branded Reeves sequel. Whether that means two Constantine films eventually reach theaters, or one quietly absorbs the other, is not something DC has addressed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a reboot of the Keanu Reeves Constantine movie?

No. Keanu Reeves is still separately developing a direct sequel to the 2005 film with director Francis Lawrence. Francis Galluppi’s script is a different, unrelated Constantine project for DC Studios.

Who is Francis Galluppi?

A filmmaker who wrote and directed 2023’s The Last Stop in Yuma County and is currently directing Evil Dead Wrath, the seventh Evil Dead film, for Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. The Constantine script is his first confirmed superhero-universe writing job.

Is the new Constantine movie part of James Gunn’s DCU?

DC Studios hasn’t said. It has not been labeled Elseworlds, which is the banner the Keanu Reeves sequel is expected to use, so it’s reasonable to read it as a potential DCU-continuity take, but that hasn’t been confirmed.

Is Keanu Reeves’ Constantine 2 canceled?

Not that DC has said. As of October 2025, Reeves said a new script draft had come in, and James Gunn confirmed talks were ongoing. Both projects appear to be moving forward at the same time.

When will the new Constantine movie come out?

There’s no release date, director, or cast yet. DC Studios has only confirmed Galluppi’s writing assignment, and the project is described as being in very early development.