The status of Constantine 2 has been up in the air, but according to director Francis Lawrence, the film remains very much in development despite some hangups.

Speaking to Gamespot, Lawrence — who directed the original film and went on to direct the Hunger Games franchise — said that the WGA strike and some other “hurdles” held up development of the film, but noted he has been in meetings with star Keanu Reeves and filmmaker Akiva Goldsman about the project.

“So Constantine 2 got obviously held up by the writers strike,” Lawrence said. “And we had to jump through a bunch of hurdles to get control of the character again, because other people had control of the Vertigo stuff. We have control. Keanu and Akiva Goldsman and I have been in meetings and have been hashing out what we think the story is going to be, and there’s more meetings of those that have to happen — the script has to be written — but really hoping that we get to do Constantine 2, and make a real rated R version of it.”

What do we know about Constantine 2?

While next to nothing is known about what the sequel to 2005’s Constantine might be about, Lawrence has reiterated in the past that he wants the sequel to be properly R-rated.

“One of the biggest things, for me, about the first one was we followed, per Warner Bros., the rules to make a PG-13 movie in terms of violence, blood, language, sexuality. But the ratings board gave us a hard R based on their the gray zone of intensity,” said Lawrence in an interview with TheWrap. “And my big, big regret was that we have an R-rated movie that’s really a PG-13 movie, and if I was going to have to go have an R, I would have really made an R-rated movie. I would have made it much scarier and much more violent, and I would have really made an R-rated movie.”

“The idea is, this time, at least for me, is to really go at it and make a real R- rated Constantine which is, I think, what people always wanted originally, not the PG-13 version that just happens to get an R,” said Lawrence.

The original 2005 Constantine film was met with mixed reviews but quickly became a cult classic amongst fans. Not too much is known about the planned sequel as of now, but the film will be written by Goldsman and produced alongside J.J. Abrams and Hannah Minghella.