John Constantine is coming to the screen… Again. While DC fans are awaiting more from Matt Ryan on The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow and are keeping their fingers crossed that Keanu Reeves could make a comeback in the DCEU, a new report is pointing to Warner Bros. working on a rebooted Constantine TV series to stream on HBO Max with a fresh actor in the role of the British occult detective.
According to The Illuminerdi, the project will be produced by J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot Productions as per the Star Wars filmmaker’s overall deal with WarnerMedia, who have set him to work on making multiple DC shows for them. He’s already attached to helm a Justice League Dark series, which we’d also imagine would feature Constantine, but at this stage, it’s unclear whether there will be any connection between the two.
What we do know is that Warner is looking to cast “a BIPOC actor in their late 20s,” a change from the classically Caucasian comic book character. The template for who they’re searching for is Venom actor Riz Ahmed, while screenwriter Guy Bolton will serve as showrunner.
As for the content of the show, it’s said that this Constantine series will place less focus on religious elements – hell and demonology have been big factors of The CW version – and will instead draw more from the horror found in the Vertigo comics. This suggests the HBO Max production will be much darker and more mature than The CW can get, and likely more so than the 2005 Reeves movie, too.
Remember, yet another iteration of the Hellblazer will also feature in Netflix’s The Sandman series, which is in production now. Suffice it to say, it’s a good time to be a Constantine fan.
