If you’ve been keeping tabs on Arrow at all, you probably already know that this week the show is going to get a very special guest star in Matt Ryan, who will reprise his former NBC character John Constantine for the popular CW drama. There has been a lot of buzz around the upcoming performance and people are very excited about Wednesday’s huge outing, but recently news broke that a cut of the Arrow episode “Haunted” has leaked.
It should be noted that the episode in question that appeared on piracy sites came from a DVD screener of the episode that the network sent out. In addition to lacking in HD quality, it’s also a rough cut of the episode, which means the episode will not be exactly the same as the one that will hit our televisions on Wednesday night. Warner Bros. Television sends out screeners to critics on occasion to give them early access to episodes in the hopes that various websites, newspapers and magazines will write about the episode. The DVD’s usually comes with an anti-piracy notice/warning, and Torrent Freak reports that is the case with the Constantine set.
The very special episode of Arrow appeared on piracy sites on Sunday around 9 p.m. ET. As of this morning at 11:15, Variety reports that only 11,667 people have downloaded the episode, which is good news for Arrow, as I doubt that small amount of the viewing population will negatively effect the overall ratings for the drama this week. We'll have to wait and see, however.
While Arrow is a pretty darn popular series for The CW, it’s not nearly as popular in terms of overall viewers as a lot of other shows that have also leaked early, including Game of Thrones episodes and the Supergirl pilot. Scores of people pirated both shows before their initial network airdates and both still managed to crush in the ratings; last week Supergirl ended up bringing in over 16 million total viewers after Live+3 ratings came in. The good news: Leaks don’t always adversely affect the episodes when they air.
If you’re looking for information regarding the Arrow “Haunted” episode but don’t want to totally spoil yourself before Wednesday, we’re here to help. You can snag a look at Constantine in the full-season Arrow trailer, or you can check out some majorly exciting stills from this week’s big episode! (A séance may or may not be included.) In addition, you can catch Constantine in his first (and possibly last) Arrow appearance on Wednesday, November 4 at 8 p.m. ET.
