DC’s favourite star-crossed smoking detective Constantine is getting a new lease on life. A collaboration between HBO and J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot Productions is reportedly underway.
With HBO at the wheel, what looks and feels a lot like Phillip Marlowe meets Supernatural, could only mean one thing, a new and improved Constantine series is apparently in the works.
Constantine is one of DC’s most enduring characters, but when it comes to mainstream audiences, it’s had a rough start. Keanu Reeves brought the character to life, in 2005, which missed its mark by some length at the box office, with critics citing Constantine was before its time. Maybe if it was released today, it would have been an overnight hit. It has since, gone on to become a cult classic.
The 2014 TV series starring Matt Ryan has also garnered a lot of praise but fell to the same fate as the phenomena of the cult hit firefly which also lasted one season.
Whilst Constantine has yet to find a proper footing with the mainstream audience, a new show on HBO could remedy that.
Plot details for the Constantine series coming to the HBO Max streaming service from J.J. Abrams, became news thanks to a good old-fashioned casting leak. “The series blends urban action, body horror, and the supernatural on the streets of modern-day London. It follows a young man whose entire world is upended when a chance encounter with a young girl pulls him into the dark and treacherous world of the occult.”
The series is described as “a darker reinvention of Constantine” and “different from any previous project based on the character,” and ” less focused on religion, and more focused on the horror elements from the Constantine comics.”
Look babe new Constantine casting calls just dropped pic.twitter.com/VmiqENQsxo
— Zay (@JonnsChocos) April 18, 2022
Expect a brand new angle, with less of a focus on the religious aspect of the character, as this time around they are looking to delve into more of the horror side of the storylines, in a move that is meant to make a clearer and more distinct separation from past adaptations.
British novelist Guy Bolton is on board to write and has already written Constantine’s pilot episode. There’s no word yet on directors or who’s joining the voice cast. More details will emerge in the coming months.
Production on the project is currently set to begin in the second half of 2022.
