John Constantine is getting ready to become the next graphic novel hero to make his way from the pages of comic books to the small screen. Deadline reports that Warner Bros. TV. and DC Comics are now developing a new series based on the character John Constantine that will air on NBC. The project is set to be both executive produced and written by Daniel Cerone and David S. Goyer, though there's no mention of how quickly the project is coming together.
First introduced in 1985 and created by Alan Moore,Steve Bissette and Jamie Delano, John Constantine is an anti-hero of the DC Comics universe who works as a supernatural detective in London. He was first introduced as a supporting character in the Swamp Thing series, but got his own line of comics, titled Hellblazer, in 1988.
Goyer certainly has plenty of experience bringing comic book characters to life, both on the big screen and the small. He most recently wrote the script for Zack Snyder's Man of Steel (and is currently working on the sequel), but also worked on all three films in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and the Blade trilogy (and directed Blade: Trinity); was a developer on Blade: The Series, scripted Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and even wrote the David Hasselhoff-starring made for TV movie Nick Fury: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from 1998. Cerone's credits lack any superhero-inspired works, but he has previously worked as a writer and an executive producer on hit shows like The Mentalist, Dexter, and Charmed.
This report is coming after a flurry of news regarding comic book characters on the small screen. This past week not only saw the premiere of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot, a show that is directly tied into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also the announcement that Fox is making a show based on Batman's hometown of Gotham. With Arrow already on the air on CW and a spinoff series about The Flash in the works, superheroes are becoming as popular on television as they are in summer blockbusters.
Speaking of movies, it will be interesting to see how this potential series will affect Warner Bros. plans for Guillermo del Toro's upcoming Dark Universe film a.k.a. Justice League: Dark. Del Toro has gone on record saying that John Constantine would play a major role in the comic book movie, but a show might have the studio nervous about stretching the brand. Of course, neither would be the first time that we've gotten to see a live-action version of the character, as Francis Lawrence previously adapted the Hellblazer comics as the film Constantine in 2005 (with Keanu Reeves in the title role). You can watch the trailer for the movie below:
