Constantine Showrunners Address Character's Bisexuality, Smoking

Today at the Television Critics Association (via EW), Constantine producers David S. Goyer and Daniel Cerone were cornered by reporters who wanted to know: just how like the Hellblazer comics would their version of John Constantine be?

Both Constantine's bisexuality and his chain-smoking appear to be, to some extent, casualties of the move to network television -- moreso the sexuality although, in fairness, that rarely played much of a role in the comics.

"It's like, look, he's a smoker," Cerone said. "We're on network television, so we're limited to what we can do and what we can show. But within that framework we're going to be very honest to the character … I believe Constantine has a very healthy sex life, we're not going to see that on TV either."

The sexuality, in particular, seemed to surprise them while the smoking questions seemed both expected and like something where the showrunners agreed with critics. There are "no immediate plans" to address Constantine's pansexual lifestyle, Cerone said, noting that ultimately it is not a defining characteristic of the character and that even in the comics, he has rarely if ever been seen actually engaging in a physical relationship with another man.

Back in Hellblazer #281, a reader wrote into the comic to address Constantine's sexuality, asking what editorial's concept of it was since there was at least one specific reference (in Hellblazer #51) to him having had male companions before.

"What kind of anarchistic bastard would John be if he subscribed to labels?" The editor asked in response to the question. "Trust me, I have firsthand experience and understand the importance of -- in this day and age -- coming out to the world and knowing who you are. It's my opinion that -- in the case of John -- we can't put an official line down because that's just more chalk on the ground and sigils on paper: labels bind like spells."

Most creative teams opted to never address the question of Constantine's potential bisexuality, and his significant on-page relationships were with women, including his marriage, which was still in place when Hellblazer ended and was rebooted in the New 52 as Constantine.

The smoking debate -- which has generated a lot of controversy since nearly every image of Constantine from the comics features him smoking -- was one that the producers seemed a bit more engaged with.

"He is a smoker in the show, we're not shying away from it, but we're not glorifying it," said executive producer David S. Goyer.

Cerone added, "That's a question you probably should ask the network afterward, but they're beholden to broadcast standards. So we get it. We know the universe that we're existing within and, trust me, we heard pitches from all different camps — 'Let's give him a patch' or 'he eats a lot of gum.'"

Goyer concluded, "We thought [showing him] having to snub something out is more truthful."

In both the comics and the 2005 Keanu Reeves film based on the character, Constantine at one point suffered from fatal lung cancer and then tricked the Devil into curing him.