Matt Ryan’s Constantine may not have performed well enough to convince NBC to greenlight a second season, but the actor’s take on the occult detective was a big hit with the fans. The outcry that followed the show’s cancellation helped give Ryan the opportunity to reprise the role in Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow and, most recently, the animated feature film Justice League Dark: Apokolips War.
The Welsh star has clearly taken John Constantine into his heart, then, and he’s now admitted that he’s hoping to get the chance to audition to play the same character in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Justice League Dark TV show for HBO Max.
“I always say to them, ‘Just get me in the room.’ And then if they don’t want me for the role that’s their choice. But I would be very disappointed if a project like that went ahead without even sitting down and seeing what I could do with the material.”
While Ryan absolutely deserves a shot at landing a part he’s done a lot of justice to in the past, one thing that might hurt his chances is the fact that Justice League Dark is unlikely to be set in the Arrowverse. That could mean Abrams will seek out an alternative live-action version of Constantine, rather than blur the lines between two separate franchises.
Moreover, the HBO Max show is expected to boast a bigger budget than any of The CW’s DC Comics output, so Ryan will likely face competition from some big-name actors, if he gets the chance to audition at all.
No doubt there’ll be a fan campaign or two supporting Ryan’s bid to return as Constantine in Justice League Dark, given his well-earned popularity, but if Abrams chooses to go in a different direction, fingers crossed he’ll still keep cropping up in the Arrowverse for the foreseeable future.