When John Constantine came to Arrow last year, fans who scrambled to get caught up on NBC’s cancelled-too-soon Constantine series were disappointed to find out that there was no legal way to do so.
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Around the time El Rey bought syndication rights for the one-season wonder, previously-available digital streaming outlets lost their licenses and unless you had already purchased the show, you couldn’t get it. Meanwhile, there was no DVD or Blu-ray release, which fans had previously heard would only have been forthcoming if the show got a second season.
All the while, Constantine fans — calling themselves “Hellblazers,” after the character’s long-running Vertigo title — lobbied for a second season, more appearances for star Matt Ryan on Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow and, of course, a DVD so that they could buy it and vote with their dollars.
It’s been months since Constantine appeared on Arrow, and while the episode provided the CW hit with a boost in its ratings that week, it didn’t seem to motivate anybody to rush right out and demand more Constantine. So the Hellblazers are back in action, now with a petition to get a Season One DVD release from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
“Haunted,” the Arrow episode in which Ryan guest-starred as Constantine, remains the top-rated episode of Arrow ever by the ComicBook.com readership on our TV database.
Barring any kind of rights tie-ups or other unknown reasons why it wouldn’t work, Constantine seems a good candidate for the Warner Archive, which has previously released seasons of The Adventures of Superman and Superboy. The Archive is a print-on-demand service for smaller titles which might not have enough of a fan base to justify a full print run and a mainstream retail release.
