Fans of the Constantine television series found their Monday mornings filled with serious disappointment, thanks to an announcement by showrunner Daniel V. Cerone that the show was now officially dead.
NBC canceled the series earlier this year, but a social media campaign made it seem possible that Constantine might get picked up by another network, particularly The CW.
The social media campaign became so popular that even celebrities like Stephen Amell, from The CW's Arrow, offered to appear on a CW-led Constantine as a guest star as part of DC's cross-over universe. Even William Shatner tweeted his support of the series.
However, it seems that all those tweets and Facebook posts fell on deaf ears. Not only did the series stay cancelled at NBC, but no other network decided to pick it up, including The CW, which airs shows based on several other DC Comics properties. This comes after Cerone even pointed out that Constantine's viewership was significantly higher than many of the other network's series.
It's likely that The CW didn't want to interfere with the ratings of Supernatural, a series not only similar to Constantine, but with one particular trenchcoat-clad character initially inspired by the John Constantine character from the Hellblazer comic books.
Whatever the case, fans of the series found themselves disheartened when Cerone made the announcement that Warner Brothers had let the writers of the series out of their contracts, a sign that the show no longer has a future anywhere.
"I promised I'd share news when I had it -- sadly, that news is not good," wrote Cerone on Twitter. "The cast and writers of Constantine are being released from their contracts. The studio tried to find a new home for the show, for which we're forever grateful, but those efforts didn't pan out. I'm sorry, I wasn't provided any information on the attempts to sell the show elsewhere. All I can report is that the show is over."
It's a sad day indeed for fans of the original character from the Hellblazer comic books, but the good news is that John Constantine, the character, continues to live on in comics, including a new title, Constantine: The Hellblazer, that begins this week. This comic promises a never-before-seen look at Constantine's past:
"The dark adventures of DC's foremost occult detective continue in an all-new series as he investigates the cruelest case he's ever come across - his own dark history!" writes ComiXology on its website.
It's not a TV series, but it's something. You can pick up a copy of Constantine: The Hellblazer on June 10.
Photo Credit: NBC
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