If you want to ask me who is the most successful role of Keanu Reeves, I may not be able to answer it for a while.
After all, as a long-established movie star, Keanu Reeves has performed many classic characters:
Neo in the Matrix series
John Wick in the “John Wick” series
Ted in the “Bill & Ted” series
Jack in “Speed”
Johnny in “Point Break”
Johnny Silverhand in “Cyberpunk 2077” and so on.
But if you ask me about the character that Reeves misses the most, I will blurt it out without even thinking about it-John Constantine!
Since starring in “Constantine” in 2005, Keanu Reeves has expressed his desire to play the protagonist Constantine again in many subsequent shows and interviews.
He even said that he had tried to actively promote the shooting of the sequel but no one was interested in it.
What kind of character is Constantine and what kind of unique charm is it that a movie star of Reeves’s level can repeatedly mention and clearly “I want more”?
Although the name doesn’t sound like it, John Constantine is a real superhero.
As early as 1984, he had already appeared in the DC universe as the “supernatural consultant” of the protagonist Swamp Thing in the “Swamp Thing” series.
At that time, the two painters in charge of the serialization happened to be fans of “The Police”. They slapped their thighs while exchanging comic content and decided to show their idols.
So, they took Sting, the core character of the band as the prototype, and borrowed the image from the movie “Brimstone and Treacle” starring him in 1982 to create the original “John Constantine”.
The two painters are obviously quite satisfied with their masterpieces, after all, this is regarded as a successful public confession to the idol.
Perhaps it was not obvious enough. After more than 30 episodes of his debut, Constantine even appeared directly on a ship named after Sting’s real name, Gordon Sumner.
At this time Constantine was only a supporting role, but from the beginning of his debut, he was set as a master of magic and a researcher of supernatural phenomena.
These settings are still retained after becoming the protagonist of an independent series.
After establishing himself, the role of John Constantine began to be refined, and he was determined to be an atypical hero from the bottom of society.
The reason why he is atypical is that Constantine’s private life is rather disorderly compared to the general superhero’s magnificent image.
At the same time, he is still bisexual.
The second is because he is good at deception and obscene tricks, and often relies on these methods to achieve his goals.
The third is because as a master of magic, he rarely uses magic, and insists that misusing magic will pay a painful price.
Constantine is one of the representatives of “atypical heroes”
It can be said that it is this “atypical” that makes Constantine unique and enduring charm.
Like many superheroes, John Constantine had a miserable childhood.
Although he is not an orphan like Batman, his growth environment is not much better.
Because his mother and twin brother died when he was born with a dystocia, his father Thomas has always been full of hatred for him.
Thomas was devastated after losing his wife, drank all day long, and often fisted and vented his anger at John.
Fortunately, his sister Cheryl loved him so much that John’s world would not be completely bleak.
The birth of John Constantine was accompanied by the death of his mother, which became the root of his unfortunate childhood
From the age of 14, Constantine became obsessed with various occult books to escape reality.
But such a hobby eventually led to him being kicked out of the school.
And his father Thomas decided to burn John’s precious books in anger.
After rescuing some of them, John, who couldn’t bear it, decided to retaliate against his father.
He found a spell that would make people age and die from the book, and followed the method, but he didn’t expect it to take effect.
At this time John began to panic. He tried various methods and finally saved his father’s life, but he could no longer recover his body.
Through this, Constantine discovered his talent in magic and began to indulge in it.
Probably during this period, he started to smoke and drink like his father, and spent a long time mixing in various bars and clubs.
Affected by the “Sex Pistols” band, he also organized his own band-“Mucous Membrane”. (The band experience is probably also a tribute to Sting)
Soon after performing the band activities, Constantine encountered the biggest and most influential setback in his life.
In order to investigate Newcastle’s unusual magical fluctuations, he took band members and friends in the magic world to the center of the fluctuations-Casanova nightclub to find out.
It was discovered that the youngest daughter Astra, who turned out to be the owner of the nightclub, could not bear her father’s long-term abuse, and used secret magic to summon the beasts in hell to protect herself.
But the ferocious beasts of hell were completely out of control, and they carried out a massacre in the nightclub.
In order to deal with the powerful hell beasts, Constantine decided to summon more advanced demons.
But unexpectedly, the summoned demon Nergal got out of his control.
After cursing everyone present, Nergal dragged the soul of the little girl Astra into hell.
Constantine was found to be a perverted murderer and imprisoned in Ravenscar Psychiatric Hospital.
The Newcastle incident is a lingering nightmare for Constantine.
Constantine spent two dark years at Ravenscar Psychiatric Hospital.
After that, Constantine realized that misuse of magic can bring painful results.
So he began to avoid the use of magic as much as possible, and devoted himself to kicking all evil demons or angels back to their hometowns.
After reading Constantine’s profile, it is not difficult to understand why Keanu Reeves would have a soft spot for him.
The same tragedy of the same year (Keanu Reeves’ parents divorced because of his father’s drug use), the same unsuccessful school career (Reeves dropped out of school without graduating from middle school), and the same experience in bands (Reeves had formed the “Sirius” and “Becky” bands and Acting as the bassist) and even the same close people had an unfortunate situation (Keanu Reeves’s ex-girlfriend Jennifer Syme died in a car accident in 2001).
There is no doubt that Reeves and Constantine have a high degree of resonance, so when you play him, you will have a natural sense of “acting in your true colors”.
Even if there are some adaptations in the movie, the resonance between Keanu Reeves and Constantine is unquestionable.
For the author, although “Detective of Hell” has adapted many aspects of the Constantine story in DC comics.
But on the whole, it is still an excellent work, so to this day, I still look forward to a sequel.
Since Keanu Reeves has taken the initiative so many times, I hope his wish will come true soon.
Related Post: Keanu Reeves hopes to appear in “Constantine” again.
