Spoilers Constantine - Web Series

[Commander Richard]

The cancelled NBC series Constantine will return as a an animated series on CW Seed. The short-lived series was folded into the the same TV universe as Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow when Matt Ryan, who played the title character and who will return to voice the character, appeard in an episode of Arrow in season 4.

This will be the third amimated series in the Arrowverse after Vixen and The Ray. An airdate has not been confirmed but the first season is expected to be made up of five or six 10-minute episodes. The NBC series is currently available for viewing on CW Seed. Read more.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Sweet! Hopefully, this will pave the way for more live-action appearances.

 

[JD]

This is great news. I was a big fan of the live action series, and I'm glad to see it continuing in any form.
According to IGN's article, which goes into a lot more detail, the live action series Executive Producer David Goyer will return, and there's a pretty good chance we'll get to see other characters from the live action series. I'm really hoping we at least get to see Zed, Chas, and Poppa Midnight.

 

[Christopher]

I'm disappointed we won't get Zed back in live action, since the actress is gorgeous, but I do hope to get the characters back. Although if they bring back Jim Corrigan, I sincerely hope they recast him.

 

[Commander Richard]

The show promises to be darker than the TV series and although no date has been set, it was slated to be released in early 2018.

Source

 

[Christopher]

Surprisingly, the web series, now titled Constantine: City of Demons, debuted its first 5 episodes today without prior announcement:

http://www.cwseed.com/shows/constantine-city-of-demons/

Even more surprisingly, it's not in continuity with the NBC series. It's a complete reboot, with a contradictory version of Chas Chandler and his family (they're English now, and their daughter is named Trish instead of Geraldine) and of the formative incident at Newcastle -- basically the same backstory, but with different details; it was only John and Chas who were there, not the larger "Newcastle Crew" from the show, and Astra Logue was white in this version.

Unlike the previous CW Seed web series, City of Demons has no Arrowverse guest stars or continuity references. The only other DC character to appear so far is Nightmare Nurse, a co-creation of the web series's writer J.M. DeMatteis. So at this point, it's unclear which of the two contradictory Constantine series is the one that takes place on Earth-One. We've all been assuming the NBC series did, but since this version is actually from Berlanti Productions, it seems likely that it would supplant the NBC series as the canonical Arrowverse version of Constantine. Even though Constantine's appearances in the Arrowverse have all made use of the Bear McCreary theme music from the NBC show, while the animated series has a new theme by Justice League Action composer Kevin Reipl.

To be honest, since Arrowverse Constantine hasn't referred to any characters or storylines from the NBC show except the Newcastle/Astra backstory, I've sometimes wondered if it would turn out that it wasn't in continuity after all. But I'm still surprised at this.

Continuity aside, I can't say I enjoyed the 5 mini-episodes so far very much. They're rather slow-paced, and needlessly gory, and so far there hasn't really been much character development for Constantine; other characters are talking about his personality traits, but he hasn't really shown them much himself. Maybe it'll get more interesting in the second half, but so far, I'm kind of left wondering what the point was.

 

[Christopher]

I said before that it was unclear which of the two contradictory Constantine series was the one in the Arrowverse, but I found a connection. According to IMDb, the voice of Astra Logue in last week's Legends of Tomorrow episode (channeled by Mallus as temptation for Constantine) was Bailey Tippen, the same actress who played Astra in the NBC show's pilot. I can't find a credit for Astra's voice in the animated series, but I'd assume it was a different actress -- probably Laura Bailey or one of the other credited female cast members doubling up, since Astra was a minor role. There was also Ava Sharp's mention of Constantine being in the Newcastle Crew, which there was no mention of in City of Demons (there it was just John and Chas). Not conclusive, but it suggests that the live-action show is the one in the Arrowverse. Which makes it unexpected that they'd do an animated show that's out of continuity (although that's still not entirely conclusive).

Someone suggested to me that C:CoD could be on a different Earth in the multiverse, but the interpretations of Chas and Astra don't fit the usual rules for Arrowverse doppelgangers, since they don't look anything like their counterparts. I'm actually wondering if it might be in the animated DVD Justice League continuity, since Justice League Dark also featured Matt Ryan as Constantine.

 

[The Realist]

I'd much prefer that the live-action series was in Arrowverse continuity than the web cartoon (particularly since I bought the Constantine complete series blu-ray in part to keep my Arrowverse collection complete). Do we trust IMDb's info on the Astra voice casting, though?

 

[Christopher]

Do we trust IMDb's info on the Astra voice casting, though?

Confirmed by the actress's own Twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/Bailey_Tippen/status/975903119115739138

 

[The Realist]

^ Cool.

 

[Dick Whitman]

These web series eventually get expanded into movies for Home Video. Vixen was already and I heard that is planned for The Ray.

I wonder if this was produced as a web series because it's would be harder to first release as a movie. Most of the DC Animated Movies have appearances of Batman and/or the Justice League to promote less popular characters. It's hard to imagine a purely Constantine solo animated film being released. Maybe this was developed with no specific continuity concerns but later realized starting as web series allowed them to avoid adding Batman as a costar?

 

[Christopher]

I wonder if this was produced as a web series because it's would be harder to first release as a movie. Most of the DC Animated Movies have appearances of Batman and/or the Justice League to promote less popular characters. It's hard to imagine a purely Constantine solo animated film being released. Maybe this was developed with no specific continuity concerns but later realized starting as web series allowed them to avoid adding Batman as a costar?

Interesting thought, but the weird thing is, the webseries is from the Arrowverse producers and the NBC show's developer David S. Goyer, not from the DC Animated Movies producers (except for Sam Register, who's in charge of all WB Animation productions).

J.M. DeMatteis has tweeted that there will be an expanded movie edition released on DVD before the final 7 episodes are released on CW Seed. Which makes it seem like the web release was just advance publicity for the movie.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Man, that's some pretty dark material. Matt Ryan does a good job with the material, not all actors make good voice actors but it feels "right" to my ears. I need to check out the original live-action series sometimes as Ryan seems to do Constantine a bit different to what feels like a broader take on the character in LoT. I'm kind of curious how the character is on the show, I watched the first one or two but didn't stick with it and don't recall off-hand.

 

[DigificWriter]

Interesting that the webseries isn't in continuity with the Arrowverse (which does officially include the NBC series, something that's been confirmed since Season 4 of Arrow) despite being produced by Berlanti Productions and David S. Goyer.

Edit: Everything I'm finding about the webseries online states that it IS set in the Arrowverse and is a continuation of the NBC series, despite the contradictions.

 

[adrainsmith]

CW Seed-along with Matt Ryan– premiered the animated Constantine at Wondercon this weekend. Five of the shorts were released, Watch it online at FANdemonium Network.

 

[Christopher]

I need to check out the original live-action series sometimes as Ryan seems to do Constantine a bit different to what feels like a broader take on the character in LoT. I'm kind of curious how the character is on the show, I watched the first one or two but didn't stick with it and don't recall off-hand.

The NBC show was generally more serious than what we're seeing on LoT, but not as dark as the comics. They had to straddle the line between John being a manipulative, selfish bastard and being at least moderately heroic and interested in helping people. The whole thing's available on CW Seed, which makes it more surprising that the animated CW Seed series contradicts it so massively.

Interesting that the webseries isn't in continuity with the Arrowverse (which does officially include the NBC series, something that's been confirmed since Season 4 of Arrow)

Not so much confirmed as assumed. But remember, we all assumed the animated series would be a revival/continuation of the NBC show, not the reboot it's turned out to be. So assumptions can be disproven by new data.

The problem is, what's been mentioned about Constantine in the Arrowverse shows is mostly just general stuff about John's backstory that's the same in both versions. The stuff that's contradictory between the two Constantine series, the stuff that would establish definitively which one is in the Arrowverse/Earth-One, hasn't been mentioned yet -- except for the subtle details like Astra's voice actress and the Newcastle Crew. But those are slight enough that they aren't definitive. We need more data to be absolutely sure.

Edit: Everything I'm finding about the webseries online states that it IS set in the Arrowverse and is a continuation of the NBC series, despite the contradictions.

Again, that's just what everyone assumed. It's what I assumed until I actually watched the show. Obviously that assumption was wrong, and a lot of online claims will have to be corrected.

 

[DigificWriter]

Not so much confirmed as assumed.

Wendy Mericle and Marc Guggenheim flat-out confirmed that Matt Ryan was playing the exact same version of the Constantine character he had played on NBC less than 24 hours after he first showed up on Arrow in "Haunted", so, no, it was never an assumption that the NBC Constantine series is/was part of the Arrowverse.

Regarding people changing their assumptions about City of Demons and the Arrowverse, it's been 4 days now since the episodes were released, which is more than enough time to correct online sources stating that the series is set in the Arrowverse, and yet said corrections haven't been made, which is frustrating.

 

[Christopher]

Wendy Mericle and Marc Guggenheim flat-out confirmed that Matt Ryan was playing the exact same version of the Constantine character he had played on NBC less than 24 hours after he first showed up on Arrow in "Haunted", so, no, it was never an assumption that the NBC Constantine series is/was part of the Arrowverse.

Creators are capable of changing their minds and their plans. It may be that at the time, they did intend that, but in the course of developing the webseries, they decided to go a different route instead. There's a reason that offscreen comments and interviews aren't part of series canon. As long as it isn't explicitly stated in-story, it's subject to change. (Indeed, some things that have been stated in-story have been changed, like the Flash season 1 reference to Ralph Dibny being missing and presumed dead in the accelerator explosion, although that can be handwaved away as a Flashpoint change.)

Yes, at this point, the evidence does seem to be pointing toward the live-action series being in the Arrowverse. That's actually the interpretation I'd prefer, since I'm not liking City of Demons much so far. But there's enough ambiguity now that I'm not going to rush to conclusions or close my mind to new data. The things that we want or expect to be true are the things we need to be most skeptical of.

 

[Set Harth]

Edit: Everything I'm finding about the webseries online states that it IS set in the Arrowverse and is a continuation of the NBC series, despite the contradictions.

Well, well. Where have we seen that before?

 

[Caretaker]

I haven't watched it yet, but looked at some descriptions online (including the Arrowverse Wikia) - evidently, they've made some changes (Astra's race changed from African American to Caucasian, Chas's country of origin). So evidently it is not in Arrowverse continuity.