Family Guy fans got their first look at the show's upcoming 19th Season thanks to Fox's Family Guy panel at Comic-Con@Home. The series will continue spoofing all corners of the pop culture universe, including a hilariously gross parody of an iconic X-Men movie scene. Following the panel, Fox tweeted out a sizzle reel of footage from several Season 19 episodes, including the aforementioned X-Men: Days of Future Past gag. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-adult-cartoon-tv-series&captions=true"] The scene recreates that iconic moment from Days of Future Past when Evan Peters' Quicksilver springs to action to save his new friends from certain death. In this case, Meg is called upon to save her family from Chris' disgusting sneeze cloud. Fittingly, the original needle drop from Days of Future Past, Jim Croce's "Time In a Bottle," is replaced with The Cranberries' "Ode to My Family." Also fittingly, Meg seizes the opportunity to prank the others rather than save them from the blast, earning a tiny slice of revenge for being the show's designated punching bag for the past 21 years. This scene and others in the sizzle reel suggest one Season 19 episode will be dealing with a dangerous new strain of flu in Quahog. Whether planned or just a lucky coincidence, Family Guy may wind up being among the first animated sitcoms to capitalize on the COVID-19 pandemic. The sizzle reel also teases a Godfather-inspired episode, with Peter crowning himself the town's newest mafioso and Chris being forced to flee to Italy, a la Michael Corleone. Other teased storylines include Stewie breaking up with his stuffed animal Rupert and Brian discovering he has 1% cat DNA. You can watch the full Family Guy panel in the video below: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/25/family-guy-official-panel-comic-con-2020"] As we recently learned, Family Guy: Season 19 will debut on Sunday, September 27. The series will be facing some big changes in the near future, as voice actor Mike Henry is stepping down from his role as Cleveland Brown. Check out the biggest announcements and panels from Comic-Con@Home so far. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Director Zack Snyder provided fans watching his appearance at Saturday's JusticeCon with a sneak peek at The Snyder Cut of Justice League by revealing a brief clip of Henry Cavill's Superman in the black costume not seen in the theatrical release. In the clip, which can be viewed below, Superman arrives at Bruce Wayne's lake house where Alfred Pennyworth (Jeremy Irons) is working on a car. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/zack-snyder-reveals-henry-cavill-in-snyder-cut-black-superman-suit-clip"] Alfred first becomes aware of something about to happen when his the liquid in his glass ripples. That's when Superman, now back from the dead, lands. Smiling, Superman ascends the steps towards Alfred, who's clearly anxious to see him. "I'm assuming you're Alfred?" Superman asks. That's where the clip ends.

Superman's black suit will be featured in Zack Snyder's Justice League, thanks to this new clip from Justice Con. https://t.co/H9O16LdvAy pic.twitter.com/IWoeuH1Bnh

— IGN (@IGN) July 25, 2020

This Superman clip isn't the only big news to come out of JusticeCon. Cyborg actor Ray Fisher addressed his recent accusations against reshoots director Joss Whedon of abusive behavior on set. Fisher believes Whedon is "scared" of the ongoing investigation and invited him to sue him if he thinks what Fisher is claiming is untrue or damaging. Snyder also confirmed that none of Whedon's footage will be used in the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Work on The Snyder Cut is underway with a release on HBO Max coming sometime in the first half of 2021. For more on Zack Snyder's Justice League, find out why the director thinks The Snyder Cut isn't part of the DCEU and watch this clip of Darkseid. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=best-superhero-directors-cuts-you-can-stream-now&captions=true"]

Director Zack Snyder provided fans watching his appearance at Saturday's JusticeCon with a sneak peek at The Snyder Cut of Justice League by revealing a brief clip of Henry Cavill's Superman in the black costume not seen in the theatrical release. In the clip, which can be viewed below, Superman arrives at Bruce Wayne's lake house where Alfred Pennyworth (Jeremy Irons) is working on a car. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/zack-snyder-reveals-henry-cavill-in-snyder-cut-black-superman-suit-clip"] Alfred first becomes aware of something about to happen when his the liquid in his glass ripples. That's when Superman, now back from the dead, lands. Smiling, Superman ascends the steps towards Alfred, who's clearly anxious to see him. "I'm assuming you're Alfred?" Superman asks. That's where the clip ends.

Superman's black suit will be featured in Zack Snyder's Justice League, thanks to this new clip from Justice Con. https://t.co/H9O16LdvAy pic.twitter.com/IWoeuH1Bnh

— IGN (@IGN) July 25, 2020

This Superman clip isn't the only big news to come out of JusticeCon. Cyborg actor Ray Fisher addressed his recent accusations against reshoots director Joss Whedon of abusive behavior on set. Fisher believes Whedon is "scared" of the ongoing investigation and invited him to sue him if he thinks what Fisher is claiming is untrue or damaging. Snyder also confirmed that none of Whedon's footage will be used in the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Work on The Snyder Cut is underway with a release on HBO Max coming sometime in the first half of 2021. For more on Zack Snyder's Justice League, find out why the director thinks The Snyder Cut isn't part of the DCEU and watch this clip of Darkseid. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=best-superhero-directors-cuts-you-can-stream-now&captions=true"]

Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves weren’t the first dudes to play Bill and Ted. During the Comic-Con@Home livestream for the Bill and Ted Face the Music panel, franchise screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon revealed that they originally performed as the characters and how an icon of the sci-fi genre convinced them to script Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/25/bill-ted-face-the-music-official-panel-comic-con-2020"] Matheson and Solomon’s own excellent adventure with these characters began in 1983 as part of a comedy improv group with friends. An improv prompt they received was to play two teenage boys studying history who didn’t know anything about the subject. “We started playing these two guys and we just liked them instantly. They struck us as really funny instantly and we just started playing with them,” Matheson recalled. The duo enjoyed playing these characters just for fun, spending about a year fleshing out their ideas for them. Matheson said they “would just talk on the phone as Bill and Ted. We would write letters as Bill and Ted. We just loved them. They were just really fun to be, long before we ever thought of putting them in a movie or anything like that. We just enjoyed them.” [caption id="attachment_2382409" align="alignnone" width="720"] Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson performing as Bill and Ted in the 1980s.[/caption] While their performances as Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted ‘’Theodore’’ Logan had been largely confined to their improv group and one another, Solomon said, “Once we did it in front of an audience at UCLA. We took questions as Bill and Ted and basically everything was either ‘excellent’ or ‘bogus’ as far as I remember.” Matheson and Solomon later explored the idea of including Bill and Ted within a movie they were scripting but the characters would have just been a small part of a larger framework. That was until Matheson received some sage advice from a legendary writer. “We were going to write kind of a skit movie with a bunch of different skits because we had just had a bunch of silly ideas. And Bill and Ted was going to be one of the pieces. It was going to be an eight or ten-minute piece,” Matheson explained. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/04/19/7-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-bill-and-ted"] “It was actually my dad -- who was Richard Matheson, who wrote I Am Legend and (The Incredible) Shrinking Man -- and I sort of ran it by him and he said, ‘You could make a whole movie out of that.’ And so we started looking at it that way.” The late Richard Matheson was the author of many classic sci-fi, horror and fantasy novels and short stories. His works were adapted for the big and small screen, including The Twilight Zone, Real Steel, The Legend of Hell House, The Box, Stir of Echoes, Somewhere in Time, and What Dreams May Come. His seminal post-apocalyptic novel I Am Legend has been filmed for the silver screen three times, most recently in 2007 with Will Smith. While the younger Matheson and his writing partner Solomon may have been the first to “play” Bill and Ted, they would not, of course, end up portraying their creations on the big screen. Solomon said “it was hard for us to imagine who would take the characters over and we were not involved in the casting process or anything.” Solomon recalled an anecdote about how they found out who did end up landing the title roles. “We were in Arizona when the movie was about to shoot and we were in line at McDonald’s and we were actually complaining to each other, ‘I bet whoever they cast won’t be able to do it the way we hoped,’” Solomon said. “And then there are these two guys in front of us at McDonald’s just goofing off and talking to each other. And Chris and I are like, ‘Now those should be the people that play Bill and Ted!’ And then we ended up on set for the first rehearsal and it was Alex and Keanu [who were the same guys from McDonald’s]. Unbelievable.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=bill-and-ted-face-the-music-first-look&captions=true"] A sequel nearly three decades in the waiting, Bill and Ted Face the Music will open in theaters and on VOD on September 1. For more, be sure to check out our full Comic-Con 2020 panel schedule.

Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves weren’t the first dudes to play Bill and Ted. During the Comic-Con@Home livestream for the Bill and Ted Face the Music panel, franchise screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon revealed that they originally performed as the characters and how an icon of the sci-fi genre convinced them to script Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/25/bill-ted-face-the-music-official-panel-comic-con-2020"] Matheson and Solomon’s own excellent adventure with these characters began in 1983 as part of a comedy improv group with friends. An improv prompt they received was to play two teenage boys studying history who didn’t know anything about the subject. “We started playing these two guys and we just liked them instantly. They struck us as really funny instantly and we just started playing with them,” Matheson recalled. The duo enjoyed playing these characters just for fun, spending about a year fleshing out their ideas for them. Matheson said they “would just talk on the phone as Bill and Ted. We would write letters as Bill and Ted. We just loved them. They were just really fun to be, long before we ever thought of putting them in a movie or anything like that. We just enjoyed them.” [caption id="attachment_2382409" align="alignnone" width="720"] Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson performing as Bill and Ted in the 1980s.[/caption] While their performances as Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted ‘’Theodore’’ Logan had been largely confined to their improv group and one another, Solomon said, “Once we did it in front of an audience at UCLA. We took questions as Bill and Ted and basically everything was either ‘excellent’ or ‘bogus’ as far as I remember.” Matheson and Solomon later explored the idea of including Bill and Ted within a movie they were scripting but the characters would have just been a small part of a larger framework. That was until Matheson received some sage advice from a legendary writer. “We were going to write kind of a skit movie with a bunch of different skits because we had just had a bunch of silly ideas. And Bill and Ted was going to be one of the pieces. It was going to be an eight or ten-minute piece,” Matheson explained. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/04/19/7-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-bill-and-ted"] “It was actually my dad -- who was Richard Matheson, who wrote I Am Legend and (The Incredible) Shrinking Man -- and I sort of ran it by him and he said, ‘You could make a whole movie out of that.’ And so we started looking at it that way.” The late Richard Matheson was the author of many classic sci-fi, horror and fantasy novels and short stories. His works were adapted for the big and small screen, including The Twilight Zone, Real Steel, The Legend of Hell House, The Box, Stir of Echoes, Somewhere in Time, and What Dreams May Come. His seminal post-apocalyptic novel I Am Legend has been filmed for the silver screen three times, most recently in 2007 with Will Smith. While the younger Matheson and his writing partner Solomon may have been the first to “play” Bill and Ted, they would not, of course, end up portraying their creations on the big screen. Solomon said “it was hard for us to imagine who would take the characters over and we were not involved in the casting process or anything.” Solomon recalled an anecdote about how they found out who did end up landing the title roles. “We were in Arizona when the movie was about to shoot and we were in line at McDonald’s and we were actually complaining to each other, ‘I bet whoever they cast won’t be able to do it the way we hoped,’” Solomon said. “And then there are these two guys in front of us at McDonald’s just goofing off and talking to each other. And Chris and I are like, ‘Now those should be the people that play Bill and Ted!’ And then we ended up on set for the first rehearsal and it was Alex and Keanu [who were the same guys from McDonald’s]. Unbelievable.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=bill-and-ted-face-the-music-first-look&captions=true"] A sequel nearly three decades in the waiting, Bill and Ted Face the Music will open in theaters and on VOD on September 1. For more, be sure to check out our full Comic-Con 2020 panel schedule.

Back at the beginning of the month, Cyborg actor Ray Fisher tweeted a video of him speaking at SDCC 2017, where he praised Joss Whedon as a "great guy," with this caption: "I’d like to take a moment to forcefully retract every bit of this statement." The actor then went on to say that Whedon's "on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable" and that former DC Films co-leads Geoff Johns and Jon Berg "enabled" the behavior. Now, during Fisher's Justice Con panel, Fisher said, replying to a question about his previous statements, "Obviously I put out some pretty strong words, and some pretty strong comments about Joss Whedon and every single one of those words, and every single one of those comments is true." Fisher then added "there is a process that is being undergone as we speak to get to the heart of everything that I’m talking about." "The man is probably scared," Fisher said, "and he should be because we are going to get to the heart of everything -- everything -- that went down." You can watch the full Spotlight on Ray Fisher panel below. The Joss Whedon topic comes up around the 26:00 mark. [youtube clip_id="8lMIZmmYkH8"] "I've been in projects where, artistically speaking, I did not agree, but you do your work," Fisher also said. "You go there and you do it. But there is a certain amount of abuse, there's a certain amount of behavior that one is willing to tolerate and once it gets beyond that point you gotta go ahead and deal with it." Following Fisher's remarks from weeks back, Jon Berg responded by saying it was "categorically untrue that we enabled any unprofessional behavior." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=history-of-the-justice-league-on-tv&captions=true"] In other Justice League news, Snyder revealed a better look at Superman's black costume in a new clip, which you can watch below, and confirmed that the Snyder Cut of Justice League won't use any of Joss Whedon's footage. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/26/zack-snyder-reveals-henry-cavill-in-snyder-cut-black-superman-suit-clip"] Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League is being completed and is expected to debut on HBO Max in 2021, For more Snyder Cut coverage, watch the first Darkseid clip and find out about some of the visual changes the movie will have from Justice League's theatrical release. [poilib element="accentDivider"]

Back at the beginning of the month, Cyborg actor Ray Fisher tweeted a video of him speaking at SDCC 2017, where he praised Joss Whedon as a "great guy," with this caption: "I’d like to take a moment to forcefully retract every bit of this statement." The actor then went on to say that Whedon's "on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable" and that former DC Films co-leads Geoff Johns and Jon Berg "enabled" the behavior. Now, during Fisher's Justice Con panel, Fisher said, replying to a question about his previous statements, "Obviously I put out some pretty strong words, and some pretty strong comments about Joss Whedon and every single one of those words, and every single one of those comments is true." Fisher then added "there is a process that is being undergone as we speak to get to the heart of everything that I’m talking about." "The man is probably scared," Fisher said, "and he should be because we are going to get to the heart of everything -- everything -- that went down." You can watch the full Spotlight on Ray Fisher panel below. The Joss Whedon topic comes up around the 26:00 mark. [youtube clip_id="8lMIZmmYkH8"] "I've been in projects where, artistically speaking, I did not agree, but you do your work," Fisher also said. "You go there and you do it. But there is a certain amount of abuse, there's a certain amount of behavior that one is willing to tolerate and once it gets beyond that point you gotta go ahead and deal with it." Following Fisher's remarks from weeks back, Jon Berg responded by saying it was "categorically untrue that we enabled any unprofessional behavior." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=history-of-the-justice-league-on-tv&captions=true"] In other Justice League news, Snyder revealed a better look at Superman's black costume in a new clip, which you can watch below, and confirmed that the Snyder Cut of Justice League won't use any of Joss Whedon's footage. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/26/zack-snyder-reveals-henry-cavill-in-snyder-cut-black-superman-suit-clip"] Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League is being completed and is expected to debut on HBO Max in 2021, For more Snyder Cut coverage, watch the first Darkseid clip and find out about some of the visual changes the movie will have from Justice League's theatrical release. [poilib element="accentDivider"]

Nadji Jeter, the star of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales for PlayStation 5, has shared a message of how much this role means to him alongside a look at some behind-the-scenes performance capture images. Jeter, who also played Miles Morales in 2018's Marvel's Spider-Man, took to Twitter to write the following;

To become a character so impactful Means the World to me. The story of Miles is what this generation & the next need! I just thank the heavens above for blessing me with the opportunity & responsibility to bring him to Life!! #MilesMoralesps5 pic.twitter.com/iz2vLZrHgD

— Nadji (@NajJeter) July 24, 2020

"To become a character so impactful Means the World to me," Jeter wrote. "The story of Miles is what this generation & the next need! I just thank the heavens above for blessing me with the opportunity & responsibility to bring him to Life!! #MilesMoralesps5" Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales was announced during the PlayStation 5's reveal event and is set to be released during Holiday 2020, the same release window as PS5. While this is not a full-fledged sequel, it is more than an expansion and is a standalone game in the vein of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/11/spider-man-miles-morales-announcement-trailer-ps5-event"] Insomniac has given a few more plot details for this new game, including that it will take place a year after the events of Marvel's Spider-Man and will begin just before Christmas. There is a street war between "an energy corporation and a high-tech criminal army" that has come Harlem, where Morales lives, and he must step up to stop it. For more on Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, check out its PlayStation 5 box art, info on its 4K/60fps Performance Mode, and six Miles Morales stories that could inspire the PS5 game. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-playstation-5-games&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN who can't wait and is so excited he just can't hide it. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Nadji Jeter, the star of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales for PlayStation 5, has shared a message of how much this role means to him alongside a look at some behind-the-scenes performance capture images. Jeter, who also played Miles Morales in 2018's Marvel's Spider-Man, took to Twitter to write the following;

To become a character so impactful Means the World to me. The story of Miles is what this generation & the next need! I just thank the heavens above for blessing me with the opportunity & responsibility to bring him to Life!! #MilesMoralesps5 pic.twitter.com/iz2vLZrHgD

— Nadji (@NajJeter) July 24, 2020

"To become a character so impactful Means the World to me," Jeter wrote. "The story of Miles is what this generation & the next need! I just thank the heavens above for blessing me with the opportunity & responsibility to bring him to Life!! #MilesMoralesps5" Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales was announced during the PlayStation 5's reveal event and is set to be released during Holiday 2020, the same release window as PS5. While this is not a full-fledged sequel, it is more than an expansion and is a standalone game in the vein of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/11/spider-man-miles-morales-announcement-trailer-ps5-event"] Insomniac has given a few more plot details for this new game, including that it will take place a year after the events of Marvel's Spider-Man and will begin just before Christmas. There is a street war between "an energy corporation and a high-tech criminal army" that has come Harlem, where Morales lives, and he must step up to stop it. For more on Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, check out its PlayStation 5 box art, info on its 4K/60fps Performance Mode, and six Miles Morales stories that could inspire the PS5 game. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-playstation-5-games&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN who can't wait and is so excited he just can't hide it. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Keanu Reeves joined director Francis Lawrence and producer Akiva Goldsman at Comic-Con@Home today to look back at the original live-action version of the Hellblazer himself for Constantine's 15th anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been 15 years since the DC character was first realized in live-action -- long before the DCEU was even a twinkle in Warner Bros. execs' eyes. The reunion panel was a lot of fun, with Reeves in top "the world loves you, Keanu" form. Several interesting tidbits were revealed during the session, including how the team talked a lot about making a sequel at one time. The Constantine 15th Anniversary panel was featured on IGN's Comic-Con@Home livestream. You can also check out our full Comic-Con 2020 panel schedule. Read on for the highlights from the Constantine panel, which was hosted and organized by Collider.com's editor-in-chief Steven Weintraub. Watch the Constantine reunion panel in its entirety below: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/25/constantine-15th-anniversary-official-panel-comic-con-2020"]

Constantine 2: The Sequel That Never Was

Goldsman recalled that during the making of the 2005 film a potential sequel was frequently discussed. "Yes, oh my God, yes," he said. "[It] endlessly came up. Boy, we wanted to. We wanted to make a hard R [rated] sequel, we wanted to ... I think we could probably make it tomorrow. Yes, we tried a lot of different ways to find [a way]. It was always, to the studios who made it, which was Village Roadshow and Warner Bros., a little bit of a feathered fish." Goldsman feels the studio didn't quite know what to make of the film's "oddness." "I do think [that] is one of the most lovely things about the film, the way it's equally comfortable in a character scene between Keanu and [co-star] Rachel [Weisz] as it is with demons flying, hurling themselves at a man who's going to light his fist on fire and expel them," he continued. "It's odd, right? It's not really action-packed. It just has a bunch of action. And this movie isn't exactly a thing, it's kind of a few things, which is what I think is beautiful about it. Those seem to get harder and harder to make. And even then, as much as we wanted to, and we've talked about it and we've had ideas... [sighs] I like that one where he wakes up in a cell and he has to identify the prisoner, that was Frank's idea, remember? And it was Jesus! ... Yeah, we talked about it!" Lawrence, who made his feature directing debut on Constantine, said that the creative team thought about a potential sequel or sequels more than the studio did. He thinks they always "loved it" more than the studio did, but the director is gratified by what he sees as an ever-increasing fanbase for the film in the years since it was released. "You know, the movie did fairly well," said Lawrence. "And this was also still a time when people sold DVDs, and so I think it did decently at the time. But it wasn't a knock-out success, and it also wasn't really sort of critically acclaimed by any means at the time. I mean, the kind of cool thing for me about this movie is just in the 15 years since it released, every time I do a movie and go out and travel the world and do junkets, I am signing Constantine DVDs more than any other movie that I've done. Over the years, different countries... people really, really love this movie. And I think that it's found a sort of a new life in a weird way." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2005/07/26/constantine-movie-trailer-constantine-trailer"]

Could Keanu Have Played a Blond, British Constantine?

The character from the comics is of course blond and British, which caused some small amount of controversy in fandom when the distinctly brunette and American Keanu Reeves was cast in the role for the movie. When asked during the panel whether or not there were discussions about Reeves maybe going with the blond hair and a British accent for Constantine, his answer was simple. "No, no," he smiled, without elaborating further. Lawrence confirmed that they never even discussed the matter. "And then I remember in costumes too the one other big change for the Constantine character was the coat," said the director. "And we did try the sort of Constantine coat and wound up going with the black one, which is different from the one in the comics and the graphic novels. We wanted to do what was right for what we were doing."

Constantine the Movie's Origins... With Nicolas Cage

Goldsman discussed how this was the project that helped him to break into producing. There had been a script "laying around that was really compelling," and so a package was put together with Tarsem Singh (The Cell, Immortals) as director and Nicolas Cage as star. Prep on the movie started, and then it stopped and then it "went to sleep for a while." Cage's involvement with the project ended when Singh parted ways with the studio. [caption id="attachment_2383039" align="aligncenter" width="1548"] Keanu Reeves impersonates the film going "to sleep for a while."[/caption] "And surely but slowly, the idea was durable enough -- like any interesting scripts -- to outlive whatever struggles it had," he continued. "And there was this video director who was really something." He's referring, of course, to Lawrence, who got his start as a director making music videos. By 2002, Reeves was also attached to the project, although he recalls that he wasn't familiar with the character at the time. "I hadn't read Hellblazer or seen any of the [creator] Alan Moore stuff in Swamp Thing," he said. "So I didn't know the character." The group laughed about how Reeves was "one of the gauntlets" that Lawrence had to pass to get the job on Constantine. Their meeting happened just days after Reeves had returned to the U.S. from Australia, where he had been shooting the Matrix sequels. "I really loved the script," continued Reeves. "And then I did some research on the character and I was, not hesitant, but I'm not English and I'm not blond. And the character is, and so I had to reconcile that, and part of that was what is the base of the character. What could I bring to the character? Why even do it? And it's such a beautiful character, this kind of humanitarian cynic. Tired, world-weary, tired of all the rules and morals and ethics and angels and demons, but still a part of it. And I loved his sense of humor." And Nic Cage got to play Ghost Rider a few years later anyway.

Other DC or Vertigo Characters

The team was asked during the panel whether or not other DC or Vertigo characters were ever considered. Vertigo Comics, of course, was DC's long-running imprint of adult-leaning titles that often had a more supernatural slant to them. Constantine was a key part of Vertigo back in the day. But Reeves jokingly took exception to this question. "Wait, you got Midnite, you got Chas!" he smiled. "What are you talking about?" Djimon Hounsou played Papa Midnite, a Hellblazer supporting character, and Shia LaBeouf played Constantine sidekick Chas Kramer in the film. But today's superhero films obviously are often focused on world-building and shared universes, a concept that was not prevalent on the big screen in 2005. Lawrence said that for as long as he was on the project, there was never any talk about bringing in other familiar faces. "The focus was on Constantine and Constantine's world," said the director. "So all the characters that surround him, but not weaving in the other kind of classic DC heroes."

Best Wrap Gift Ever

At one point during the panel, Lawrence whipped out the Holy Shotgun prop from the film, much to Reeves' delight. It turns out it was a wrap gift from Reeves to his director, and he actually had the props department make a replica of the piece from the shoot. Made of bronze, the gun weighs "probably 35 pounds." Unfortunately, when asked if he has the original, Reeves said he doesn't. Which sounds like the perfect reason to finally make Constantine 2... For even more on the world of DC, be sure to check out every upcoming DC movie.