Gotham and The Flash aren’t the only new DC Comics-related shows to premiere this Fall.
Also on the schedule is Constantine, a new drama based on the DC/Vertigo series John Constantine: Hellblazer. Bringing the series to life are executive producers Daniel Cerone (The Mentalist, Dexter, Motive) and David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight, Man of Steel, DaVinci’s Demons).
We spoke to Cerone and Goyer about Constantine at this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego. You can see the video below, and some highlights follow:
About Zed: “She’s a character from the comic books, but for the people who don’t read the comic books, they’ll get a good introduction to her over the first few episodes. She’s got some supernatural abilities. What’s cool about Zed – we don’t want to give too much away – is she’s got a really interesting backstory which will lead to a whole possibly seasonal arc of storytelling,” Goyer says.
“For anybody who is a Hellblazer fan and who knows anything about Zed’s backstory, we’re going to be as faithful to that as we can,” Daniel Cerone promises. “For the viewer that isn’t initiated, that backstory will be a bit of a mystery. We’re going to play it as a mystery, and certainly we’re going to play it as a mystery from Constantine’s perspective. We just feel that she’s very rich. We feel that as someone who can stay in the show with Constantine, especially throughout our first season arc, look: Constantine’s a BS artist, and as a sensitive character, she’s someone who is a BS detector. So she can call him on his lies, his games, and his manipulations, and it’s something we didn’t really feel the Liv character could do. We thought ‘let’s give him someone who’s an adversary, and can provide conflict, and can really get in his face.’ And have romantic potential, because let’s face it: As we presented her, Liv was the daughter of his mentor, and it was a little bit weird to go there.”
The appeal of John Constantine: “He’s so much fun to write for, because he’s not a cop. He’s not a FBI guy. He approached everything in such an idiosyncratic way. He’s just a blast to write,” David Goyer says.
“If you look at the ‘mages’ through the ages that have come through comic books or really, almost any literary world, they’re proper, they’re older; this guy’s just a streetwise warlock. He’s a con man, he’s a supernatural grifter… if Constantine comes across a situation, he might try to get out of it with magic. If he can’t get out of it with the magic, he might try and kick your ass. If he can’t kick your ass, then he might try a con. If the con doesn’t work, then he’ll turn tail and run,” Cerone adds.
On a Season 1 Big Bad: “Even within our first season serialized arc, there’s somebody behind these things that are being released. And again, if you go back to the ‘American Gothic’ storyline in Swamp Thing, that’s the genesis for that. We’re going back to the source material,” Cerone says.
Come talk about Constantine on our forum for the show! – Take a look at some of our other Constantine interviews!
