Constantine Animated Series Coming to CW Seed in 2018

The Constantine series was the first comic-book TV failure of the current era, with the series only running 13 episodes on NBC from 2014-2015. It was an odd choice in the first place for such a safe network, since it was about a conflicted, foul-talking demon fighter who could be as bad as the evil he fought, played by Matt Ryan.

But Warner hasn’t given up on the character. (Which is great, since the show was better than you might think. It wasn’t given enough time to get its legs under it.) First, Ryan guest-starred on an episode of Arrow. Next, the character, still played by Ryan, was the lead of Justice League Dark, an animated direct-to-video movie.

Now, Constantine will be an animated series, airing on the CW Seed digital network in 2018. Something similar was done with Vixen, who after some live-action appearances, got a short animated series (that was later repackaged as a movie). Here’s the Constantine first look trailer, where he plays demons off against each other.

The digital venue allows for more blood and bad words, it seems, and animation makes it easy to do demon battle special effects. The series is written by long-time comic author J.M. DeMatteis. There’s also a promo poster.

Ryan will also return as (live-action) Constantine in two episodes of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow season 3. The John Constantine character was created by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben and first appeared in the Swamp Thing comic book.