‘Constantine’ Comic-Con Highlights: New Trailer, More Villains, And Constantine Will Smoke

During the Comic-Con panel for Constantine (panel video below), NBC released a new extended trailer for the show (above). This one showcases perhaps even more gore than first trailer and clip, although we could have done without the repeated scene. Okay, we get it. He failed to save the little girl from Astaroth. You don’t have to show the same shot of him shouting “you can’t have her” twice.

Besides the interesting reveals made at the very end of the video below, showrunner Daniel Cerone and executive producer David Goyer gave some of the best reveals to Screenrant in a long interview this weekend. After being nonplussed by the news that Constantine can’t smoke, which means his best storyline would have to go, we were reassured by their claim that he will be smoking after all; they just needed a creative workaround for the network rules.

David Goyer: Here’s the deal: We cannot show him inhale.

Daniel Cerone: We can show him putting out and lighting up.

Goyer: Our hope, our fervent hope, is that fans will see that and appreciate the attempt. Because, look, we can’t change broadcast standards, but what we can do is try and get away with as much as we can… I mean, he’ll talk about it, he is a smoker. We’re not saying he’s not a smoker. It’s not inconceivable that we could do in another season a version of that Dangerous Habits storyline.

“Not inconceivable”! We’ll take it! Smoke ’em if you got ’em (but don’t you dare videotape yourself inhaling, or it’s straight to hell).

As for NBC’s standards on gore, well… of course violence is more kosher than sex or cigarettes. This is America.

Goyer: I’m glad we’re at NBC, the home of Hannibal and things like that. They want us to be truthful, they know it’s dark source material.

Cerone: As network writers we both get in the habit, you learn to censor yourself, because you know what you can get away with and you know what you’re going to get notes on. To NBC’s credit, they are literally… like, ‘No no no, kill that guy. Can you go a little darker here?’ They’re pushing us to really… Which is just, the floodgates open for us creatively. It’s just nothing but opportunity because it allows us to… honor the Hellblazer material.

Speaking of honoring the material, they also addressed the rumor that voodoo-practicing mob boss Papa Midnite would appear in the first season, with the potential to be working with or against Constantine (it’s complicated). David Goyer confirms (and also repeats in the video below) that we can expect to see Papa Midnite as a recurring character.

Cerone: Yep, he will. We’ve already got him pencilled into two early episodes.

Goyer: He’ll be a recurring character.

Cerone: We’re literally casting this week.

The rest of that interview is available at Screenrant.

Finally, here is a video released late last night of Constantine‘s Comic-Con panel, featuring Matt Ryan, Harold Perrineau (Lost), Charles Halford (True Detective), Angélica Celaya, Daniel Cerone, and David Goyer. It doesn’t get interesting until about 9:15 in when Goyer and Cerone start talking about which characters and storylines to expect in the first season.

Constantine premieres Friday, October 24th at 10/9c on NBC.

Via Screenrant and Constantine

×