Hopefully you won’t get too attached to Constantine‘s leading lady after the pilot episode, because actress Lucy Griffiths has reportedly left the show due to some creative reshuffling. The creators of the series have “opted to move in a different direction,” and will not be recasting the role.
Griffiths’ character, Liv, was meant to be a demon-fighting partner and protege for titular supernatural detective, John Constantine. After being marked for death by a powerful demon, she’s given the ability to see the supernatural world that exists within our own. She then teams up with Constantine to help wage the war between good and evil.
As it turns out, her part in that war will be short-lived, because Liv will be quickly written off of the show and replaced by Zed, a character many Hellblazer readers will recognize. In the comics, Zed is a psychic and love interest of Constantine’s, who works closely with him on matters of the occult. According to THR, she will usher in future Hellblazer and DC occult character appearances, and make her debut in one of the show’s early episodes.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Daniel Cerone outlined their decision to replace Liv with Zed:
“When you put a wide-eyed innocent into that world, she’s just very reactive. The nice thing about Swamp Thing, when he first teamed up with Constantine, was that Swamp Thing had abilities, Swamp Thing had skills. Constantine needed those skills.
One of the coolest things about Constantine he doesn’t have any ‘powers.’ He came out of a time with all these superheroes with their garish colors and flashy powers, and he just comes out with a rumpled coat, wearing browns and greys, and he just knows a lot magic and spells, but it’s all knowledge-based. Anything he can do is based in knowledge and his own studying.
Zed is actually one of the first women Constantine meets in the comic books, and she has various psychic powers. We felt ultimately she’s going to service the first season better as someone to pair Constantine up with. She can get in his face a little bit and have some of her own realizations and skills and really push him. But if whoever Constantine is working with is constantly on her heels, that just wouldn’t service the show really well.”
Early reactions to the pilot pointed toward the character of Liv being one of the shakier aspects of the series, so she likely won’t be missed. An actress for the role of Zed has yet to be cast, though we should start hearing news about that shortly.
Constantine will premiere on October 24th at 10 p.m. on NBC.