Constantine (TV series)

Premise

John Constantine, a demon hunter and dabbling master of the occult, must struggle with his past sins while protecting the innocent from the converging supernatural threats that constantly break through to our world due to the "Rising Darkness". Balancing his actions upon the line of good and evil, Constantine uses his skills and a supernatural scry map to journey across the nation to send these terrors back to their own world, all for the hope of redeeming his soul from eternal torment.

Main

Recurring and guest

Episodes

On October 30, 2015, Daniel Cerone released a script for the fourteenth episode that would have aired had the series continued, entitled "Final Girl".

Production

The series was developed by Daniel Cerone and David S. Goyer, with the pilot episode directed by Neil Marshall. The show remains more faithful to the source material than the 2005 film, although on-screen depiction of Constantine's chain-smoking habit was said to be curtailed because of broadcast television restrictions (the network eventually becomes more lenient and John is shown smoking on screen in later episodes). Additionally, the character's bisexuality was not referenced on screen, with Cerone saying, "In those comic books, John Constantine aged in real time. Within this tome of three decades [of comics] there might have been one or two issues where he's seen getting out of bed with a man. So [maybe] 20 years from now? But there are no immediate plans." This was met with criticism from the LGBTQ community.

Griffiths was cast as the original female lead Liv Aberdine, the daughter of a late friend of John's called Jasper Winters, who comes to discover that she has the ability of seeing the supernatural world among us. She teams up with Constantine to fight the demons who have targeted her and learn more about her late father. Griffiths was dropped after Goyer and Cerone decided to take the series in a different creative direction. The comic character Zed was chosen as a replacement for the female lead. Angélica Celaya was later announced to fill the role. Some of Griffiths' final scenes from the pilot were reshot, explaining why she does not join Constantine in his adventures as originally intended. Both Goyer and Cerone have talked about a possible return for Liv.

In November 2014, NBC announced that they would not be ordering more episodes past the initial order of 13 for the first season, though a second season renewal was not ruled out. When questioned about the chances of the series return in January 2015, NBC president Jennifer Salke said, "We wish the show would’ve done better live. It has a big [delayed] viewership and a younger audience. We love the show and it’s safe to say we're still talking about it." NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt added, "We got on the comic books bandwagon. Maybe, there are too many of them." In February 2015, Cerone reconfirmed that the series had not been cancelled and that the producers would pitch their ideas for an additional season to NBC in May 2015. In mid-April 2015, Cerone stated it was "a long shot" that the series would be renewed, adding "While we marginally improved a tough time slot for NBC, we're a very expensive show to produce. A lot of NBC's decision making will not [sic] doubt hinge on their new pilots and how they feel those new shows would fare as a companion piece to Grimm, versus a second season of Constantine." On April 23, Cerone tweeted that the producers would pitch their ideas for a second season on April 27, which was earlier than he had previously announced in February, with NBC making their decision in early May. Following the meeting, Cerone tweeted that the "NBC exec said [to] tell the fans it went well" and that "If this show comes back for more, I can honestly say it was the fans."

On May 8, 2015, NBC declined to renew the series for a second season, prompting Warner Bros. Television to shop the series around in an attempt to get it picked up by another network. A month later, Cerone revealed that the cast and crew were released from their contracts after Warner Bros. Television had "tried to find a new home for the show... but those efforts didn’t pan out", and stated "that the show is over." On the many fans who voiced their support for the series in attempting to get it renewed, Cerone said, "we’re leaving behind wild and passionate fans who believe in and were moved by what we tried to do. To leave such a significant, dedicated and active fan base on the table—that’s the real sadness. You all deserve many years of the series we set out to make, and we’re disappointed that we couldn’t deliver that to you."

Broadcast

Constantine aired simultaneously on Global in Canada. In the United Kingdom, the series was acquired by Amazon Video. The series is available to stream in Australia on Stan. It is also available in Canada on Shomi starting September 24, 2015. On July 1, 2016, the series was made available to stream on CW Seed.

Home media

The complete series, along with bonus material, was released on Blu-ray, DVD and digitally on October 4, 2016 by the Warner Archive Collection.

Ratings

The premiere episode "Non Est Asylum" received an additional 2.90 million viewers from DVR viewing, to create a total of 7.14 million viewers for the episode.

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 72% critic approval rating with an average rating of 6.2/10 based on 46 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Constantine's creepy atmosphere, high-stakes action, and splendid special effects combine with a welcome touch of humor to overcome narrative flaws and present a version of the title character that's close to his comics counterpart." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 53 out of 100 based on 25 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

John Con Noir

DC Entertainment has released a clay stop motion animation web series called John Con Noir. The web series is developed by Cool Town Creations to support the petition for the television series to be renewed for a second season. The first chapter was released on January 16, 2015 on the DC Comics official website and YouTube account, in addition to the mid-season premiere on NBC.

Ryan reprises the role of John Constantine as the character tries to find his own program's creators and showrunners, Goyer and Cerone, after they go missing. If Constantine does not succeed, then the NBC network will have no other choice but to cancel the program.

Crossover with Arrow

In May 2015, Stephen Amell, who portrays Oliver Queen / Green Arrow on The CW's Arrow, revealed he had discussions with DC Entertainment to portray the character on the show, saying, "The reason that I was going to guest star on Constantine, at least the idea that we were throwing around was [Constantine's] an expert when it comes to the Lazarus Pit, which is now something that is a part of and will continue to be a part of Arrow." Amell stated that, even though Constantine was not renewed for a second season, a crossover "was and is still on the table". Additionally, Arrow showrunner Marc Guggenheim revealed a desire to integrate Constantine into the universe that had been created with Arrow, saying, "A lot of the pieces are in place, except for that one final piece, which is what's the fate of Constantine? That's the tricky thing. But it comes up in the writers' room constantly—we have a number of ideas, one idea that’s particularly exciting to me. We're in a little bit of a wait-and-see mode." In July 2015, additional Arrow showrunner Wendy Mericle added, "We really want to [include Constantine]. It's something we've been talking to DC about and it's just a question of some political things, but also the actor's schedule. We're trying to work it out, but we don't know 100 percent if it's going to happen. But we're really optimistic and we would love to have him," presumably talking about Matt Ryan.

In August 2015, it was confirmed that Ryan would appear on Arrow in the fourth season episode "Haunted", per a "one-time-only-deal" that will involve his character being "brought in to deal with the fallout of the resurrection of Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) via Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pit" because "Unlike Thea [Queen], who wasn't fully dead [before being resurrected by the Lazarus Pit], the consequences of using the pit on someone as dead as Sara creates some unforeseen difficulties...and John Constantine is uniquely suited to help our team deal with those." Guggenheim said, "This is something the fans were clamoring for," praising DC for being so "magnanimous and generous in giving us this one-time dispensation." Due to Arrow and Constantine sharing the same studio, the producers of Arrow were also able to acquire Ryan's original outfits, with Guggenheim saying, "The trench coat, the tie, the shirt...the whole wardrobe is being taken out of storage and shipped up to Vancouver [where Arrow shoots]." John Badham, who directed the fifth episode of Constantine, "Danse Vaudou", directed the Arrow episode. In addition, Mericle revealed that the version of Constantine that Matt Ryan will portray on Arrow is the same version of the character that was portrayed on Constantine. On filming the episode, Guggenheim stated it felt like the production team was "doing a Constantine/Arrow crossover, and it’s so exciting… We’re just really glad we got the chance to extend Matt Ryan’s run as Constantine by at least one more hour of television. I think you’ll see he fits very neatly into our universe. It never feels forced, it feels right."

Animated web series

In January 2017, the animated web-series Constantine was announced, for The CW Seed, with Ryan returning to voice the character. CW President Mark Pedowitz stated there were no plans "at this point in time" for Ryan to appear in any of the Arrowverse live-action series and noted there had yet to be discussions regarding if any other characters that appeared in the cancelled live-action series to appear in the web series, nor if this version of the character would "connect back to the live action storylines he's been a part of." Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Goyer will serve as executive producers.