EXCLUSIVE: Arrow & Legends of Tomorrow Boss Marc Guggenheim Reveals Why Constantine Was Banned From The Arrowverse

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Matt Ryan’s Constantine had a great run in The CW’s Arrowverse shows. Starting out on NBC in his own series, Constantine made the transition to Arrow during season 4. He then became a main character on DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow for a number of seasons. However, a shift occurred as we learned the character was leaving the series. Thankfully, Ryan was staying on the series, but as a different character. But what happened exactly in this situation? Why was Constantine suddenly leaving the series and the Arrowverse?

Marc Guggenheim, who appeared on The Showrunner Whisperer has finally revealed the answer. It took host Andy Behbakht some pushing, but he got the answer. When asked about working with DC in terms of what characters they could or couldn’t use, Guggenheim had this to say during part 2 of the interview:

Guggenheim: I’ll tell you, the only time that bothered me – and I was off the show, as a showrunner by this point – the only time that really bothered me was Legends being told that we could no longer use Constantine.

The Showrunner Whisperer: So that was true; the rumor that the reason why Matt Ryan didn’t come back as Constantine was because he got pulled?

Guggenheim: Oh, I’m sorry, you’re breaking up, what a bad connection! [laughs]

The Showrunner Whisperer: No, but that was the hot rumor that was going around.

Guggenheim: There are probably a lot of truths of that rumor, is probably all say, I think I’ve gotten myself into enough trouble.

The Showrunner Whisperer: If I put it this way, we knew there was a Constantine show coming to HBO Max (now known as Max) from J.J. Abrams, so I think anyone could put the pieces together with that as well.

Guggenheim: I would say that was a pretty realistic deduction and, obviously, given the fact that show never came to pass. It’s particularly disappointing that we had to shift gears with Matt, who is not just terrific as Constantine, but just a terrific actor in general.

The Truth About Constantine Is Finally Revealed

It feels wonderful to finally get an answer to this question, especially for longtime followers of the Arrowverse. Constantine was a major draw to DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, and to pull him away felt sudden. Characters rights are always a tricky thing when it comes to making entertainment. Studios typically try to stray from having too many interpretations of the same character going at the same time. Ryan played the role for many years in live-action and animation too, and he thankfully got the opportunity to explore him for a while before this decision was made.

There was many rumors circulating around the reasoning to the character being removed. Thankfully, through Guggenheim’s comments, this is one Arrowverse mystery that has been solved, ending any theories or ridiculous arguments. It‘s also unfortunate that this choice was made, and the Constantine reboot show from J.J. Abrams never came to fruition. This was similar to when Arrow was forced to remove characters from season 3 due to the release of Suicide Squad.