HBO Max may have found its new John Constantine.
According to The Illuminerdi, the streaming service is eyeing British Nigerian actor Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù to play DC's offbeat antihero. Dìrísù previously appeared The Huntsman: Winter's War, His House and Silent Night, among other films over the past decade. The actor also starred in a number of British TV series, including The Halcyon and Gangs of London.
HBO Max first announced the new Constantine series in February 2021, also revealing the show would be developed by J.J. Abrams' production company, Bad Robot. Around the same time, reports claimed the series would be a darker, more horror-centric take on the character and that the production would seek a BIPOC actor in the lead role.
If Dìrísù is confirmed as HBO Max's Constantine, he will be the first Black actor to portray the character. Constantine is depicted as a blonde white man in the DC Comics source material. Keanu Reeves played a brunette Constantine in 2005's Constantine, which also starred Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf and Tilda Swinton. Connor Dylan Wryn portrayed a teenage version of Constantine in the film. More recently, Welsh actor Matt Ryan took on the mantle for NBC's short-lived Constantine series and would go on to reprise the role in The CW's Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow. Ryan also voiced the character in several animated series and films.
John Constantine was first introduced in 1985's The Saga of Swamp Thing #37 by creators Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, Steve Bissette and John Totleben. The cynical British occult detective with a heart of gold spun off into his own solo series in 1988 with John Constantine, Hellblazer, originally written by Jamie Delano and illustrated by John Ridgway. Hellblazer would go on to become a core title of DC's now-defunct Vertigo Comics imprint.
Principal photography on the HBO Max series, which will reportedly take place in the United Kingdom and Morocco, is set to begin sometime in fall 2022 and will run through February 2023. Constantine is one of multiple DC projects Bad Robot is working on as part of an overall deal with WarnerMedia, including the animated series Batman: Caped Crusader, a film starring Zatanna, and a Justice League Dark series. Bad Robot's live-action DC content will all reportedly take place in the same universe and cross over with one another.
Source: The Illuminerdi