Matt Ryan Will Bring Constantine To ‘Arrow’ For “One-Shot Episode”
Constantine, the show, may be cancelled, but John Constantine, the character, isn’t dead. And thanks to a new deal that confirms a rumor that began in the past few weeks, we’ll see John Constantine onArrow, at least briefly. Once again, he’ll be played by actorMatt Ryan, who starred in the short-lived NBC series. The CW announced the Constantine/Arrow crossover as set for an episode ofArrow’s fourth season.Varietyhas info out of The CW TCA panel, noting thatArrowshowrunnerMarc Guggenheimpreviously said that “everyone” wanted to bring Constantine intoArrow, and that the idea “comes up in the writers' room constantly.”
At the time ofConstantine’s cancelation, after its 13-episode first season, he said,
It would be wonderful and we certainly have a million ideas — it’s hard for me to say mainly because A: it’s not my decision to make and B: with ‘Constantine’ being shopped around to other networks… it’s really hard to make plans when a show’s kind of in limbo.
The show isn’t exactly in limbo any longer — it wascanceled outright by NBC, anddidn’t find a new home. But that left room for The CW to step in and bring the guy intoArrow. Granted, the tone of the original show and the tone ofArrowaren’t quite the same, so we’ll see what slight changes are made to the character.
The CW head Mark Pedowitz says “It will be a great one-shot episode” that features Constantine.
That comment seems intended to head off any potential speculation about a continuing role for the character. But TV is dynamic, and can shift to follow audience tastes. And even the single episode, “one-off” or not, will inevitably lead to supposition about a spin-off Constantine show on the new network. We’ve already seen oneArrowspin-off become successful (The Flash) with another (Legends of Tomorrow) planned for a debut within the next year.
