Home TV News ‘Constantine’ Reboot In The Works At HBO Max By J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot

‘Constantine’ Reboot In The Works At HBO Max By J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot

by Dave Elliott

‘Constantine’ Reboot In The Works At HBO Max By J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot

HBO Max is working on a reboot of DC Comics ‘Constantine’ with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot it has been announced… However, buckle up… as I’m pretty sure the proposed changes will not go down well with ‘Hellblazer’ purists…

This all-new iteration would see John Constantine as a young Londoner, rather than from Liverpool, and would see a “diverse lead” as the famous working-class warlock. According to Variety, the show is also said to focus more on the horror, and less on the religious aspects of the comic book.

That, of course, means tv’s current version of John Constantine, Matt Ryan, who has played the character on his own NBC show, before joining The CW’s ‘Legends Of Tomorrow’, and voicing the animated version, will not be starring in this new take. It possibly also throws a question mark over the rumoured film sequel, which would have seen Keanu Reeves reprise his version from the 2005 movie. It is likely that this new version would be tied into HBO Max’s ‘Justice League Dark’ series, which is also produced by Bad Robot.

This version of the character is being written by British novelist Guy Bolton, whose debut novel ‘The Pictures‘ is currently in development as a movie, and its sequel ‘The Syndicate’ was released in 2019 to critically acclaim. He is also working on ‘The Croupier’, an original pilot for Lookout Point (‘Gentleman Jack’) and Sky. J.J. Abrams’ is set to produce for Bad Robot.

Given how much of a fan-favourite Matt Ryan has become in the role of Constantine, it does seem like an odd choice to create a new, and rather different version of the character for the HBO Max series. Particularly odd (if correct) is the idea of staying away from the religious side of a character from a book titled ‘Hellblazer’ whose plotline has involved him selling his soul to various Lords of Hell…

However, as has been established in the Arrowverse ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths’ event, DC Comics on-screen does exist in a multiverse, with all film and tv versions established on their own versions of Earth, so there is no reason why this iteration of Constantine shouldn’t exist alongside the Matt Ryan version, or the Keanu Reeves film version for that matter.

Should this ‘Constantine’ series go ahead on HBO Max, it would also join other new DC shows including John Cena’s ‘Peacemaker’, which is tied to James Gunn’s ‘The Suicide Squad’ movie, the Gotham PD series which is tied to Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’, a ‘Green Lantern’ series, the ‘Strange Adventures’ series, and ‘DC Super Hero High’. We’ll let you know when we hear more.

You may also like

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

2 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments