A little over a year after news of J.J. Abrams’ partnership with HBO Max for a handful of Justice League Dark titles first broke, we finally got our first bit of info about everyone’s favorite devil-swindling demon hunter, Constantine.
According to The Illuminerdi, HBO Max’s Constantine reboot will end filming in February 2023 under the working title, Chimney. In addition, the report doubles down on previous rumors that HBO Max wants a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) actor to take on the role of Constantine. Filming is expected to take place in the United Kingdom and Morocco with Guy Bolton as the lead writer and Abrams as the executive producer along with Bad Robot’s Ben Stephenson and Rachel Rusch-Rich.
Constantine’s lack of a proper representation in live-action films and shows is tragic, to say the least. The renegade hell-led Vertigo’s library for years with Hellblazer before DC Comics shut it down. The success spawned a Keanu Reeves-led eponymous adaptation that pulled in a respectable amount of money at the global box office and started a cult following. Years later, Matt Ryan starred in a self-named TV series on NBC for one season before the network canceled it due to low ratings. Ryan would later reprise the role in subsequent appearances in the CW’s Arrowverce, eventually becoming a series regular starting in season 3 of Legends of Tomorrow.
After two failed attempts at bringing Constantine from hell, it appears that HBO Max wants to try a different direction. Only time will tell if this will succeed or not, but the platform’s plans for a Justice League Dark universe are intriguing, to say the least.
Justice League Dark is a separate branch of the Justice League specifically created to deal with otherworldly threats of the supernatural and mystical kind. The group’s members have changed over the years, but in the comic books, the founders include John Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman, Madame Xanadu, and Shade. A recent animated adaptation saw the group band together under the leadership of Batman. 2017’s Justice League Dark eventually got a sequel in 2020, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, which is the last film in the DC Animated Movie Universe.
Audiences who aren’t keen on reading comic books can start watching the aforementioned animated films, as well as live-action adaptations, to tide themselves over while waiting for word on HBO Max’s Constantine reboot.
Speaking of J.J. Abrams, word has it that the script for Bad Robot’s Black Superman reboot is almost finished. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO, David Zaslav, is reportedly looking for a Kevin Feige-like figure to help overhaul the DC Extended Universe and make it more cohesive.
