Following the success of Clayface, another DC Comics horror film could be heading to theaters. It was recently announced that Francis Gallupi, director of 2028’s Evil Dead Wrath, has been hired by DC Studios to write a film centered on occult detective and sorcerer John Constantine. If completed, the project will be the second live action film featuring the character following 2005’s Constantine, which starred Keanu Reeves. Fans of Hellblazer and other Constantine comics were critical of that film, but it has since accrued a cult following of its own, with a sequel having been in early stages of development in recent years. Gallupi’s script is speculated to be for a separate project, suggesting the Reeves sequel may no longer be in development, though neither of these details have been confirmed. Whatever the case, the best adaptation of the character so far actually came from television, where a tumultuous beginning for John was followed by a successful stint in The CW’s Arrowverse.
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Constantine premiered on NBC in 2014, when the superhero genre was enjoying a network television renaissance started by Arrow. Matt Ryan was cast in the title role and quickly gained acclaim for his portrayal of John, which adhered much more closely to the comics canon than Reeves’ did. However, the series itself received mixed reviews and was cancelled after its first season. Ryan reprised the role for a guest appearance on Arrow’s subsequent fourth season, which set up the Arrowverse’s second spin-off series, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Ryan joined the cast of the latter in its third season and his years on Legends included John’s strongest storylines outside of comics so far.
Matt Ryan’s Constantine Found a Home in the Arrowverse
Arrow Season 4, Episode 5, “Haunted,” flashbacks reveal that Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) had learned of the existence of magic and briefly teamed up with John during an undercover mission he was forced into for the espionage agency ARGUS during his fourth year stranded away from his home of Starling City. In the present-day storyline, Oliver contacts John for assistance after discovering that his friend Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), the original Black Canary, has returned to life and started a killing spree. Sara’s sister Laurel (Katie Cassidy) had attempted to resurrect her with the League of Assassins’ Lazarus Pit, but Sara’s body was revived without a soul. John successfully helps Oliver and Laurel travel to Purgatory to restore Sara’s soul to her body. Sara then became a member, and eventual leader, of the titular time traveling superhero team on Legends.
In Legends of Tomorrow Season 3, Episode 9, “Beebo the God of War,” John reaches out to Sara after learning that a girl named Emily (Madeleine Arthur,) who is possessed by a demon, has a mysterious connection to her. John then continued to appear on Legends and reluctantly joined the team when it began to more regularly face magical threats. He appeared alongside Sara and other Legends in the Arrowverse’s 2019-2020 crossover event, Crisis on Infinite Earths. Following the success of “Haunted,” Ryan was also cast to voice the character in various DC animated projects outside the Arrowverse. His appearances were always warmly received by fans, many of whom now consider the actor to be synonymous with the character.
Following the mixed reception of its first season, Legends transitioned to a largely comedic tone. Though this famously led to the series becoming a fan favorite, it also initially made it seem like an odd fit for Constantine storylines, despite John’s importance to Sara’s history. But the contrast between the show’s lighthearted style and the darker, horror genre mythology it borrowed from Hellblazer ultimately proved to be compelling. Legends’ optimism also led it to develop John in different ways than the comics usually do. The comic book John is constantly haunted, often literally, and frequently endures tragic losses, often due partially either to his own personal mistakes or his manipulative, questionable tactics for fighting supernatural evil. This is all also true of Ryan’s version of the character, but Legends in particular subverted expectations by allowing John to make more significant, positive progress in his personal development, and with the team’s help he even secured a few major victories, without as many harrowing catches as his comic counterpart has to endure.
The NBC series closely followed John’s most famous comic book origin story, introducing him when he was traumatized following a failed exorcism that resulted in a young girl named Astra being damned to Hell. In Season 4, Legends reintroduced a now adult Astra (Olivia Swann,) who had become an influential figure in Hell’s supernatural underground, and expanded on the history John had with her and her family. Being confronted with the consequences of his greatest failure initially exacerbates some of John’s flaws, with him even choosing to risk his current mission of saving Legend Ray Palmer/The Atom (Brandon Routh) from demonic possession to again try to help Astra. Astra understandably holds a grudge and serves as an antagonist to the Legends for a time but John is eventually able to help her redeem herself, after which she joins the team and becomes John’s apprentice sorcerer. By allowing Ryan’s John to succeed where the comics version never has, Legends demonstrated a unique perspective on the character.
The show continued to develop John in surprising ways in later seasons, especially by having him begin an unexpectedly wholesome, committed romantic relationship with teammate Zari Tarazi (Tala Ashe.) But Season 6 also featured a resurgence of the character’s self-destructive qualities. While battling Aleister Crowley (Matt Lucas,) a fictionalized version of the real occultist who John had previously imprisoned in a painting, John loses his magic powers. As his subsequent efforts to restore them continue to fail John grows increasingly obsessed and reckless, in a storyline that served as a clear, powerful allegory for addiction. Eventually John goes so far as to join forces with the Legends’ current enemy, a mad scientist named Bishop (Raffi Barsoumian) in the hopes of using an alien organism called the Fountain of Imperium to restore his powers. Though Bishop betrays John and kills him with poison, the Fountain connects John to a kind of afterlife in which he speaks with Sara, admitting his mistakes and reminding her of the importance of love. John is then resurrected with his powers fully restored after selling his soul to a demon. He departs the team to resume fighting magical crime on his own, after apologizing to Zari for ruining their relationship.
Though Ryan remained on Legends for its seventh and final season, he began playing a separate character named Gwyn Davies, and John made no further onscreen appearances in the Arrowverse. Though this disappointed fans and was speculated to be the result of Warner Brothers or DC executives forcing the franchise to stop using John because of plans for other projects featuring the character, his exit did result in the particularly strong Season 6 storyline, which cemented his Legends’ tenure as the character’s best onscreen arc by far, given how it both progressed him further than many comic book tales do and reemphasized his tragic flaws. While it’s arguably for the best that this bittersweet conclusion is left as the end of John’s Arrowverse story, given how many different continuities Ryan has already played the character in and how consistently strong his performances were, many fans would be happy if he were to return to the role again for the DC Studios film, however unlikely that may be.
Would you like to see Matt Ryan return as John Constantine? Discuss in the comments.
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