In his Reddit AMA — which was detailed in depth in an accompanying 44-minute video — Frank Cappello said he wrote the project as a metaphysical horror film, but when legal issues derailed those plans, he was forced to make some changes that effectively eliminated Keanu Reeves from the equation. “So I invented a character that had the same vibe as JC and called him Mr ‘E’. That was a Joel Silver production and it never got made,” Capello wrote. “Probably because Mr Silver wanted a giant talking plant man like the cheesy TV series and my draft was based on the darker cool world that Alan Moore originally did. I wish I could leak that script out so people could see how cool that film would have been.”
Ironically, “Swamp Thing” did eventually become a TV series that ran for one 10-episode season on The CW in 2019. “Constantine,” meanwhile, was resurrected by NBC for a 13-episode run that ran for one season from 2014 to 2015 with Matt Ryan in the title role.
While Cappello’s plans for any more “Constantine” projects appear all but dead, a follow-up by the original film’s director, Francis Lawrence, is still in the works. The “Constantine 2” director confirmed the status of the Reeves sequel in November 2023 and said plans for the movie weren’t affected by Warner Bros. DC Film and TV co-head James Gunn taking over the DC Universe. However, rights issues continue to hold up the “Constantine” sequel.
