Matt Ryan On Fitting Constantine Into The Arrow Universe

In May, NBC officially cancelled Constantine after only 13 episodes, but the demon hunter will see the light of day in the next episode of Arrow. Matt Ryan is slipping on his trench coat once again and being brought in to restore Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) to the person Team Arrow knew and loved.

In a new interview, Ryan talks about adjusting Constantine to the Arrow universe and how difficult it was to get back into character. “There are certain things he’s doing, like picking up a sword and fighting with it, that are slightly different,” Ryan tells Variety. “And there was a period of adjustment as well, when I first put on the trenchcoat again. The first take I thought, ‘What am I doing?’ But after a while it was like, ‘Ah, there he is. There’s the posture. There’s the physicality of him.’ What’s great about that episode is that John comes into this Arrow world, and everyone doesn’t believe, or doesn’t know about, these occult worlds beyond ours, and John’s just like, ‘Look, this is the way sh— is.’ And he’s an arrogant bastard as well, so everyone’s a bit thrown off by him.”

He made sure to thank the diehard Constantine fans that still haven’t given up hope for the show being resuscitated. “It’s crazy. They’ve been some of the most amazing fans. Even now they’re hashtagging #BringBackConstantine,” he says. “It’s a shame we weren’t able to find a home for the show. Those cult fans, they’re hardcore, you know. I love them. They’re so loyal. Just putting the trench coat on for Arrow, it did kind of sadden me a little bit. There are 300 issues of that comic book, and there are so many great stories to tell. We were just getting started, man.”

When things take a turn for the worse with Sara (guest star Caity Lotz), Oliver (Stephen Amell) calls in a favor from an old friend who deals in the mystical, John Constantine (guest star Matt Ryan).

“Haunted” episode of Arrow will air on Wednesday, November 4 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.