Legends of Tomorrow will be bringing John Constantine onto the team full-time in Season 4, but don't expect to see the antihero fall in with the Waverider crew right off the bat. Executive producer Phil Klemmer recently revealed the creative team intentionally kept Constantine on the heroes' outskirts between the end of Season 3 and start of Season 4, in order to flesh out the occultist's character and story ahead of his inclusion as a full-fledged Legend.
The reason we held back on making him a Legend is we always wanted to keep that shroud of mystery around him. We didn't want to have him acclimate ever to being integrated with the team. [We] selfishly wanted to create some new mystery around him for our show.
John Constantine laid out a fair amount of his pre-Arrow-verse persona in his canceled NBC series, but Phil Klemmer and the Legends of Tomorrow crew wanted to craft a story for him within the specific confines of this show. For that reason, in the time between Constantine's arrival at the end of Season 3 and his re-appearance to the team in the Season 4 premiere, he'll have gone through some things that result in a change to the Constantine that viewers have been familiar with. Klemmer hinted to THR that he's had a lot go down between appearances.
So between dropping off the dragon's head and knocking on Sara and Ava's door in the middle of the night in the premiere, he lived a very eventful five months. He was in a pretty good spot, relatively for Constantine, but we wanted him to be darker, more troubled, more mysterious. That's something for the audience to have to unravel: What happened to Constantine during the offseason and why has he changed?
John Constantine has quite literally been through hell and back, so it's hard to imagine what could have the Waverider's newest full-time member in such a grave state when he rejoins the team. That's part of the mystery, of course, with Phil Klemmer saying viewers will feel compelled to work out what's going on with Constantine as Season 4 goes on.
We can speculate Constantine's change is tied to hunting down all the magical entities that escaped alongside Mallus, but it's entirely possible something else will be bugging him when he reappears. Klemmer didn't tip his hand as to what the series has planned, but he did hint that there will be some friction amongst the Legends in upcoming episodes. Does Constantine have a hand in this? It's certainly possible.
Constantine's story will have a large impact on the season beyond just plot, too. Phil Klemmer admitted that changing the character's persona made Legends of Tomorrow notably darker, and said Season 4 will feel more "morally ambiguous" with Constantine around. The showrunner gave a specifically ludicrous example, mentioning a conversation had about whether or not it's ethical for the Time Bureau to lock up a Minotaur, which only sparked more questions, resulting in the staff crafting wild stories that could upend the traditional understanding that viewers have about mythical and magical creatures. Klemmer hinted that there are some things the fairy tales got wrong, and that even those most whimsical of beings we know and love could actually be murderous beings.
Legends of Tomorrow returns to The CW for Season 4 on Monday, October 22, at 9:00 p.m. ET. Keep up with all shows coming and going this fall by hitting up our fall premiere guide.
