Constantine being written out of Legends of Tomorrow but star Matt Ryan secures different role in the series

So this is how John Constantine’s story ends… not with a bang but with a whimper?

From being cancelled at NBC to being pulled into Arrow and then to finally finding his way onto the Legends of Tomorrow crew, Matt Ryan’s journey as John Constantine has been almost as crazy as his comicbook counterpart.

But, alas, we have learned at SDCC@Home that his road is now finally… over.

However, sigh, star Matt Ryan will stay on in the show but as a completely new character.

No, really.

Showrunner Phil Klemme said at SDCC: “While John Constantine’s arc on the show is coming to an end in Season 6, Matt Ryan’s journey with the Legends is not over.”

Taking over from this, star Ryan added:  “As everyone who loves him knows, in the end, John Constantine will walk his path alone,” Ryan explained. “The time has come for John to part ways with the Legends, and for me to part ways with John. I’m really excited to be creating this new role on the show and having some fun with it — discovering how this new character fits in and causes some trouble for the Legends.”

While we wrote an article not a million years ago about how Constantine could be the lynchpin holding the whole DC universe together (here), it seems that the sorcerer and anti-hero has reached the end of the road… at least in this incarnation.

“I’m really excited,” says Ryan, “ As we all know, that John is a character throughout all of his comic book history and all the TV parts as well – he’s someone who always walks alone and he dips into stories and dips out of stories. The time for John’s story now with Legends and with me has come to an end, but I’m still really excited to be doing another role on this show and creating a new role with everybody and having some fun with that in a way that maybe I haven’t had with John.

“So that’s really, really exciting to me, to see what that’s going to be and discovering how this new character fits in and causes trouble for the Legends.”

Ryan will depart as John Constantine and will then play the role of all-new character Dr Gywn Davies, “an eccentric scientist from the early 20th century who might be the team’s only hope next season.”

Ryan has spoken many times about how proud he has been to play Constantine and how he will fight to keep the character alive so, while I don’t doubt he’s excited about the new gig, I can assure you, he’s stinging about the role of Constantine being taken from him.

While nothing was said to the effect, I’d say a safe bet for why they had to retire the character is because HBO Max is currently looking to cast a new version of Constantine to tie into their planned Justice League Dark universe (here) – it’s just a pity that, after all these years of fighting to keep him alive, Matt Ryan has been told he has to let go of the character.

But it sounds like, at the end of his run, the character will be left to roam the DC universe at his leisure rather than be killed off, giving hope that maybe, just maybe, in the future, we’ll see him fill that trench coat and shirt once again.