Keanu Reeves’ Enthusiasm Breathed Life Into Comic-Con Proceedings During The ‘Constantine’ Panel

As is the case for everything in 2020, this year’s Comic-Con International proceedings are, well, different. Obviously, the usual gathering of the nerds couldn’t happen in San Diego. Most of the panels that are airing this weekend were pre-recorded in advance as Zoom conference calls, so it’s a toned-down affair — a status that’s further cemented by the lack (for the most part) of any Marvel, DC/Warner Bros., or Sony movie presence. The standouts so far, as far as panel views go, include The New Mutants and The Boys, but the Saturday proceedings include a real treat: Keanu Reeves.

On Saturday night, the Bill And Ted Face The Music panel will go live, but before that happens, a Keanu fix arrived in the form of a panel (moderated by Collider’s editor-in-chief Steven Weintraub) that looked back at the making of 2005’s Constantine. Even Keanu followers who aren’t familiar with his turn as the noir-soaked DC antihero could appreciate the event. His beard game is strong, and he’s all in for this Zoom thing.

Reeves raved for a full hour about how much he enjoyed making the movie alongside director Francis Lawrence (this was his first feature film after helming a ton of music videos) and producer Akiva Goldsman. The trio talked about how the R-rating put a real damper on proceedings, since this was essentially a PG-13 film, other than featuring demons and exorcisms and the like. They discussed wanting to go hard-R for a sequel, though, which isn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility, given that Francis noted that the film’s cult following still lives, and people frequently mention it to him these days.

Clearly, the highlight of the whole hour was Keanu. He reflected on the now-infamous scene where he uses a cat as a window to hell (“I didn’t know what i was going to do with the cat until I met the cat, and then the cat told me what to do”), and he was essentially charming as hell. People were here for it:

And in the final moments of the panel, Keanu blew the audience a kiss, much like he recently did in Netflix’s Always Be My Maybe. You can watch the full panel (moderated by Collider’s editor-in-chief Steven Weintraub) below.