Warner Bros Discovery’s CEO David Zaslav is currently cleaning house in a bid to cut at least $3 billion of debt from the studio’s books. Early casualties have been Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt, and every show in pre-production must be feeling the pressure of not knowing if the hammer is going to come down at any moment. The nerves must be especially high on DCEU projects, as an impending “reset” of the universe to focus on big event movies is promised.
Fortunately, it at least seems like the J.J. Abrams-produced Constantine reboot is safe. Deadline has given their overview of the Warner Bros Discovery situation and reports:
One HBO Max project that sources point to as being on solid ground and moving along is Constantine, a darker reboot of the DC Comics character from British writer Guy Bolton. The project is set around a diverse lead, rather than the one played by Matt Ryan in the 2014 NBC series and The CW’s Arrowverse, or the 2005 Keanu Reeves feature film.
This is somewhat surprising, as you’d think the cards were stacked against this show. For one it’s sounding like the Justice League Dark multi-show project that Constantine was intended to be a key part of may not happen, but for another Netflix just debuted another version of the character in The Sandman that already has fans demanding her own spin-off.
That’s Jenna Coleman’s gender-switched Johanna Constantine, whose performance silenced naysayers and was a great recreation of the characters’ 1980s occult roots.
Warner Bros Discovery’s take on may end up being quite different though, with reports that it’ll be set in the modern day, that they want a ‘darker’ take on the occult detective work, and that they’re seeking a diverse lead (actor Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù has been rumored for the part).
This Constantine was expected to shoot in London and Morocco later this year, so let’s hope we get confirmation on it soon.