DC Entertainment may be rushing their movie franchises and alienating their comic book readers, but at least fans can enjoy this fall’s TV selection. Fans already knew about CW’s Arrow already confirmed for Season 3 back in February, but within the last week The CW also confirmed a go for the Flash spinoff series. Not to be outdone, Fox then announced the pick up of the James Gordon centric (not Batman) show Gotham, then only days later released a teaser for it that got everyone talking.
Now just this past weekend NBC released the trailer for their new series Constantine, and the people agree that everything looks right.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPE2oBnzROY[/youtube]
The pilot will be directed by Neil Marshall, who’s recent credits go to two episodes of Game of Thrones, two episodes of Black Sails, as well as Centurion (2010) and Doomsday (2008). Not too many great things can be said about his movies, but his TV ventures have shown a lot of growth in his directorial skills. No stranger to comics or television, David S. Goyer is teamed up with Daniel Cerone for writing duties. Cerone has been both Excutive Producer and writer for shows like The Mentalist, Dexter, and even Charmed, so clearly he knows a thing or two about the magic world.
Fans will be most pleased to see the spot on look of Matt Ryan as John Constantine. Keanu Reeves and John Constan-dude is now history as Matt Ryan is already acting more like the aggravated Brit in the 3 minute trailer than Reeves’ entire time in 2005’s Constantine. Joining Constantine is his long time pal Chas Kramer. Previously played by the now “Not-Famous” Shia LaBeouf, Chas is now played by Charles Halford. We don’t get to see much of Chas in the trailer, so who’s to say how faithful he’ll be to the London cabbie of the books.
The last two seemingly notable characters in the trailer include Liz, who resembles Rachel Weisz in a way, as she appears to be the viewer’s way into the world as she slowly discovers the supernatural conflict that’s been raging on in the shadows of humanity. As her eyes are slowly opened to more and more, we’ll probably learn about Constantine and the world that he lives in. The other character that seems likely to be a regular is the angel that talks to John who’s credited as “Manny”, but others may remember Harold Perrineau from Blade (TV Series), Lost, or my favorite as Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet (1996).
It’s pretty likely that the show will often have a creature of the week vibe, but hopefully that will come with a season arching story and plenty of teases to the Vertigo Universe. Would it be too much to ask for a Swamp Thing cameo?