While his solo series may have been unfortunately cancelled by NBC a few years back, it’s been exciting to see Matt Ryan reprise his role of John Constantine, be it on various other TV shows or in animated movies. In fact, we’ve been quite spoiled in recent memory, as he’s appeared several times on Legends of Tomorrow, and is slated to become a series regular as of season 4.
As you may recall, it was actually Arrow that first brought the beloved demonolgist into a larger universe with its fourth season, when Constantine was enlisted in helping retrieve Sara Lance’s soul from the Great Beyond (ah, simpler times). It was after this memorable guest shot that DC fans relentlessly requested an encore, which eventually arrived in the form of those aforementioned Legends of Tomorrow guest shots.
Naturally, being a part of three different live action TV series affords various writing teams the possibility of exploring this cult favorite in their own way, something that wasn’t lost on Ryan while he sat down with The Iris:
“Well, doing Constantine on Legends of Tomorrow is different to, obviously, Constantine, or even the Hellblazer comics. There’s so many different elements of the character, which I think the writers of Legends, Arrow, and of Constantine, always did a great job of bringing those out. In terms of particular storylines, we did, and start to explore, we explored a few of those on the NBC show. That was great, to watch those writers kind of adapt in those stories, and see them through the medium of television.”
And with so much source material serving as inspiration, it stands to reason that this arena has only scratched this surface, as Ryan continued:
“That’s one thing I love about John is, he has so much going on and there’s so much more to explore that keeps you interested, and how they make of it in the character, as well. Because there are all these weird story lines that are being written over the years, that people always draw on them.”
Knowing that mythical creatures will factor heavily into Legends of Tomorrow‘s fourth season, we can only imagine the sticky situations in which Constantine and his new comrades will find themselves – and what hilarious quips the exorcist will make throughout.