Constantine's Harold Perrineau Talks the Season Finale, Season 2 Hopes and Whether He Could See a LOST Reboot

02/13/2015 05:27 pm EST

When Oz and LOST veteran Harold Perrineau joined Constantine, it was a clear sign that the NBC adaptation of the long-running DC/Vertigo supernatural drama was setting its sights pretty high. Since then, they've brought in acclaimed and recognizable names like Emmett J. Scanlan and Mark Margolist, all in service of a first season that will conclude tonight.

It's still not known whether showrunners Daniel Cerone and David S. Goyer will be bringing the show back, either on NBC or another network, next year, but fan enthusiasm has been high for most of the season and only heated up when talk of cancellation started to rear its head.

Perrineau joined ComicBook.com to talk about the series, his performance and his second major go-'round with fan culture.

Is it odd as a performer having to play a kind of ghost in the room, where nobody interacts with you?

You know, it's interesting. I haven't felt at all that compartmentalized. I did this show years ago called Oz, where I played a character who was in a box. And really, I would come in for one whole day and and I would be by myself, like for eighteen hours, just in a box, spinning around, stuff like that.

It hasn't felt like that at all with Constantine because there's always so  uch other stuff going on. So even though I've only mostly had dialogue with John, we've had the show where we had the fallen angel and I always show up in places where things are going on. I've been around Zed. So it hasn't felt like so in a box as it maybe looks. It's felt like I've been talking to everyone around. But for the story, I'm glad that you're going to see more of Manny communicating with other people...and thus you'll learn a lot more about Manny, so I'm really excited for that. But it hasn't been so strange, or so weird, like it's just me and Matt Ryan and that's it. It's been actually pretty awesome, and it's given us time when it is me and Matt to figure out their relationship. Because we don't have any research material to figure out their relationship because this relationship is brand new; it's not in the comics. So it's given us time to figure that stuff out, but it's been fine for me. It's been really interesting and good and exciting and creative and all that stuff.

Because Manny isn't in Hellblazer, has it been gratifying the way the audience has embraced the character?

Yeah. I am really glad about that because when they told me about it, I was really really psyched about it. So I was really hoping that the fans would be, too. It seems like there's so much stuff to do there. It's an interesting world, adding an angel in the midst of all the stuff that's already going on in that Hellblazer world. I'm really happy that the fans have taken to it because I've found Manny to be really really interesting, even though we only get to see him a little bit.

I've also been talking to the writers, and so I have a little more information, but I'm really glad the fans have taken to him and we've found things that are cool. Those wings weren't supposed to be there all the time, but they were so cool that they just started showing up a lot more. We've discovered stuff that's really fun for me, and I hope for the fans as well.

You're a very young actor to be the wise, old man on the set, but as somebody who was on LOST, you've got experience with the rabid fanbase and the spoiler-seeking interviews and stuff like that. Have you helped coach some of the others through fan culture?

I have just a little bit. It was really interesting going to Comic Con. Matt was really nervous and Charlie was. They were like, "You've been here before, right? Is this going to be crazy?" I was like, "We're going to have a great time." It's been really fun. We also have some great support over at NBC. [Warner Bros. Television Director of Publicity] Holly Ollis is a master over there; she really knows what goes on. So it's actually been really fun being that guy who's been in that position, so they can go, "What do we expect here?"

I tell them "People are going to come and they're going to ask questions and they're going to compare this, and don't take any of it personal. People just get really excited about it, and that's what you want. You want them to be really excited about it. Those things are great because it's a real conversation. Sometimes the things that the fans are saying actually ends up happening in the show that you're in, and the show affects the things that the fans are saying, so it's a real conversation, so I'm helping everybody embrace the fandom of it all. So yeah, it's kind of interesting to be the wise old dude on the Constantine set.

Everyone is rebooting everything now. How many times have you heard that LOST is coming back, now that you've got The X-Files and Twin Peaks and everything else?

I didn't know that those things were coming back! In fact, people have been asking about LOST coming back since LOST ended, and before. I used to get, "If this ends, do you think it will be a movie?" So it's no different for me.

That being said, I think they've always put in place stuff with LOST so if they wanted to come back, there are definitely interesting places to start off a new thing with it.

What can we expect from Manny tonight?

In this one, we're going to learn some more stuff about Manny that I think is really cool. It's going to change the audience's perception of Manny. 

We get to learn a little more about Manny. I can't say anything more than that. I think when people see it, people are going to be saying "What happened?!"

How much closure do you think is coming to your arc in the season finale?

Let me say this in the best way that I can: I had always talked to Daniel and David about where Manny was going, and then when we found out that we were only doing thirteen episodes, they sort of ramped it up quickly. I would say there isn't any closure at all -- that it's just the beginning. I don't think there's any wrap-up of the show or of the season or anything like that necessarily. Not with Constantine, not with Manny, not with anybody.

You guys seem to really love what's going on. How much of that is the material, and how much of that is just the atmosphere on set?

I think it really is, I would go 50/50. The Hellblazer comics are really cool. Really different than the other superhero comics that they have out there. That in itself is super exciting. The way they posed it to us was there are all these great writers who have worked on Hellblazer and in The New 52, and this is our chance to make a stamp on it, adding to the lore of Constantine. So just the setup, for me at least, was like "What? Yeah, let's do it." That's been really exciting. 

And then once I met Matt and got on set, it was really exciting. Sometimes directors show up and they have camera angles and stuff to figure out but me and Matt we can sit down and say, "What's this relationship that we're creating? What's really happening?" Then we can call Daniel and David and say "What do you think about this line? Because it seems to be..." and then that becomes really infectious, too.

I should say 50/50, but the whole thing is all really, really exciting. Like I said, it's a chance to do something and to put our voice into this already-great legacy. It's nice to be able to add a little bit and to say, "Hey, that's what we did. That's cool." And you have to be creative and on your game. It's been really exciting.

Is there a particular story beat from Hellblazer or a character from DC you'd like to see Manny bounce off of?

Well, I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens with Emmett Scanlan as Corrigan. I'm looking forward to seeing how The Spectre and Manny, how that goes down. A lot of people are talking about Swamp Thing. I'm really curious about what happens when you add those kinds of elements and Manny. How those things are going to work, so I'm curious about all of it and seeing how creative our writing staff is going to be. There's a lot of it. There's a lot of it I know, there's a lot of stuff I still dont know because I'm still reading.

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