Arrow/Constantine crossover: Matt Ryan heading to Starling City

Constantine lives — but there’s a twist!

Matt Ryan will reprise his titular role from NBC’s short-lived Constantine for one episode on the upcoming season of Arrow, CW announced at the Television Critics Association’s semi-annual press tour.

Constantine will appear in the fifth episode of the show’s fourth season, titled “Haunted,” in which he provides critical “critical support to Oliver (Stephen Amell) when arrows aren’t enough.” After the panel, CW boss Mark Pedowitz teased that during the episode, “a character is getting resurrected.” Hmm, could that have anything to do with this?

“We are thrilled to have Matt Ryan reprise the role of John Constantine on an upcoming episode of Arrow,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim says. “Matt is an incredibly talented actor and his portrayal of this beloved character was always something we admired. The introduction of magic and mysticism on the show this season has provided a truly organic opportunity for us to bring John Constantine to Arrow and the CW’s DC universe. It will be a well-deserved tip of the hat to all the Constantine fans who were so incredibly supportive of that series.”

Though both characters hail from DC Comics, it’s a rare move to have a character from a canceled show cross over to a current one, especially since there hasn’t been any indication that the anti-hero and the Emerald Archer live in the same universe. However, a John Constantine–Oliver Queen pairing has been in the works for a while.

The idea first popped up when NBC axed the struggling freshman drama. Amell tweeted in May that he would make a cameo on the show if another network or Netflix brought the show back to life. Unfortunately, Constantine was unable to find another home, though executive producer Daniel Cerone gave fans some hope ahead of Tuesday’s announcement on Twitter.

“It’s a great one-shot episode,” Pedowitz said.

Based on the DC Comics property Hellblazer, Constantine followed the titular con man-turned-occult detective as he begrudgingly kept dark forces at bay and struggled with the sins of his past. Production on the series was halted after 13 episodes with little hope the show would return for a second season after averging 4.5 million viewers and a 1.4 rating in the 18–49 demographic.

On his Twitter, Ryan confirmed the happy news for Constantine and Arrow fans everywhere. See his message:

Arrow returns Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.

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