WB Animation will release four DC Showcase shorts this year including Constantine: The House of Mystery starring Matt Ryan.
Together with Constantine: The House of Mystery will be shorts that will feature Kamandi, Blue Beetle and The Losers. These will serve as bonus features for released DC animated films. The Constantine short will be the longest of the four.
The House of Mystery will be the follow-up short to Justice League Dark: Apokolips War back in 2020. The warlock Constantine is stuck in the House of Mystery. Because of Ryan’s numerous projects portraying Constantine, he has personified the character in the minds of the creators in the project.
Matt Ryan Returns As Constantine In DC’s Showcase
Image: Warner Bros. Animation Group
Matt Ryan’s first portrayal of Constantine is 2014 NBC television series Constantine created by Daniel Cerone and David S. Goyer. The series had decent fresh Tomatometer reading of 72% from critics and average audience score of 75%. NBC cancelled the series after the first season as President Jennifer Salke says in a 2015 interview with The Wrap:
We wish the show would’ve done better live. It has a big [delayed] viewership and a younger audience. We love the show and it’s safe to say we’re still talking about it.
Even though the show got cancelled, there was undeniable truth that the series started its own fanbase. Matt Ryan became synonymous with Constantine. So much so that when the Arrowverse began tackling the Lazarus Pit, it was only natural for Arrow star Stephen Amell and showrunner Marc Guggenheim to bring Constantine into their story.
Since then, succeeding projects involving Constantine belongs to Matt Ryan. He portrays the role in live action such as in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, the television version of Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two in Batwoman and Part Three in The Flash. It’s also he who lends the voice to the character in animated films such as Constantine: City of Demons and Justice League Dark: Apokolips War.
Supervising Producer Rick Morales talked about getting Ryan again for the new DC Showcase, he says
He’s Constantine, there was really no choice. When I spoke to our casting director about it, we just presumed it’s going to be him. There’s some continuity to it of course so we have to carry that over, but he embodies the character, and as good as Ernie (Altbacker) is at writing in Constantine’s voice, he knows that character.
Matt Ryan Returns As Constantine In DC’s Showcase
Image: Warner Bros. Animation Group
Screenwriter Ernie Altbacker emphasizes
After seeing him do Constantine on Justice League Dark, now I don’t write for Constantine, I write Matt Ryan doing Constantine.
Consistent with Constantine’s genre, the DC Showcase short will not be wholesome GP or any PG rating but will be Rated-R. Ryan continues to portray the role that Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, Steve Bisette and John Totleben created and first appeared in comic books in The Saga of Swamp Thing #37 in June 1985. Constantine’s solo/lead comic book series were Hellblazer which ran from 1988 to 2013, Constantine at 2013 to 2015, Constantine: The Hellblazer from 2015 to 2016, The Hellblazer from 2016 to 2018 and the most recent published series of John Constantine: Hellblazer from 2020 to 2021.
