As NBC starts building their piles of pilots and series orders, they’re also looking to clean up shop. And while this won’t come as a big surprise or anything, the network is destroying a lot of comic book lovers’ minds by officially pulling the supernatural plug on the ratings-challenged Constantine. Farewell for now, John, and we hope to see you on the other side.
The news was delivered by showrunner Daniel Cerone, who announced it on his Twitter page. Luckily, it sounds like there’s a slim chance that the darkness will live on in the future.
Constantine has been right on the bubble for months now, and I’m not sure anyone ever really thought that NBC would order up Season 2, considering their lack of jubilant support for the show. (There were even erroneous reports several weeks ago stating the network had already ended it.) Knowing that the odds were against them, hopefully someone over at Warner Bros. has been working on a secret secondary gameplan to try and get Constantine a potential new home.
We’re living in an era of TV where network-to-network shifts – or network-to-streaming-service shifts, if you will – are part of the norm, so it’s not out of the question that we might see A&E or FX show some interest in bringing Constantine back for Season 2. Yahoo Screen saved Community, Netflix saved Arrested Development and Longmire, and Hulu is currently trying to save The Mindy Project. Anyone paying attention to the massive “#SaveConstantine” social media effort has to be aware that the fanbase is eager to see the show come back in any form and in any place. They’ll just have to be willing to actually watch it if and when it does.
A couple of weeks ago, the Constantine writing staff let loose a couple of tidbits about where they would want to take Season 2 if NBC gave the order. Beyond seeing Papa Midnite get a larger role, they claimed their plans were to bring in other celebrated DC Comics characters like Doctor Fate, Phantom Stranger and Etrigan the Demon, giving the show an even deeper mystical feel than it already had. As well, we would have gotten to see detective Jim Corrigan biting the bullet, which would allow him to become The Spectre. They were also planning on going deeper into John’s history to see how he got to his current demon-hunting station in life.
So we’re not saying, “R.I.P. Constantine,” just yet, as we’re definitely hoping the show finds some new digs soon. But we have bought a grave plot, just in case. To find out if all your other favorite shows are staying are going, check out our cancelation/renewal rundown here.
