CONSTANTINE's First Story Arc Is "Straight From The Comic Books"

With the first episode of Constantine airing at 10pm ET/PT tonight on NBC, fans are likely to see several callbacks to the character's comic book origins, including glimpses of Doctor Fate's helmet and Pandora's Box (both seen in trailers). Producer Daniel Cerone has discussed that the first season is all mapped out, and is set to incorporate elements from Constantine's appearances in Swamp Thing stories. "The beauty of developing a comic book like Constantine, that's been in publication, in some form, for 30 years, is that there's such a wealth of material. We definitely know what we're doing this season, we know what our ending is, we know what we're building toward, and we have a sense of what we're doing for the second season and what we'd like our second season arc to be. Our first season arc actually comes straight from the comic books." He points out that Constantine was introduced in the pages of Swamp Thing during the 1980's, and explains how the Hellblazer's role will shift from supporting player (in the early comics) to main character. "If you listen to a lot of the language of what they're talking about, with the rising darkness and some force out there that's planning a terrible event and is trying to flush supernatural entities out of the darkness and into the light, when Constantine showed up in Swamp Thing, he actually showed up as a character who always ushers someone along. Constantine showed up to help facilitate Swamp Thing." Cerone clarifies: "Swamp Thing was the one, at the end of that story, who ended up fighting the darkness. In our story, we're using the same coming darkness, but Constantine is going to be the one who's fighting it. So, we're dipping very heavily into the mythology for the series." Are you excited to see the first episode? And if you've seen it already, are you looking forward to more?