Legends of Tomorrow Star Matt Ryan Explains Why Constantine Has to Leave

There’s only two episodes left in this season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which means Matt Ryan‘s Constantine is real close to sailing off into the sunset. Announced earlier this summer, Ryan will no longer be playing the beloved character after this season. While Ryan will still be a part of the show’s cast, he’s playing a new character named Gwyn Davies.

According to the actor himself, the pivot in characters is something that’s been brewing for awhile. The fan-favorite actor says the Legends writer’s room has done about all they can with the supernatural-based character.

“Before I started shooting this season. It was last season that we knew it was going to happen,” Ryan tells TVLine when asked when he first knew the change was going to take place. So we had the conversation, and it was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ When the original Constantine show was cancelled, it felt like there was unfinished business. It felt like, ‘I wish that I could get to play out this character in a way that I didn’t get to do.’”

Ryan adds, “Who would have thunk that seven years later, I’d still be playing the character, getting to explore? So I really had the most wonderful journey with him, and I felt like in the context of this show, it was the right time for him to go on his journey and walk his path. And as a fan, which I am — I’ve read almost all the Hellblazers, I think, apart from the last two of the new run, which are effing awesome, by the way — it just felt like it was the right time for him to leave the show. And then they asked me to stay. It’s a different challenge for me as an actor, and that felt organic as well.”

No matter what takes place over the next two episode, Ryan warns fans that Constantine probably doesn’t deserve the happiest of endings.

“I feel like the sendoff that they’ve given the character is great, obviously, within the context of the show,” the actor says. “I just didn’t want him to have a happy ending. Don’t give John Constantine a happy ending! No, he’s got to f—k it up!”

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW. “There Will Be Brood” airs August 29th.