John_Constantine_poker_Justice_League_Dark

Continuing the PR train for ‘Justice League Dark,’ Warner Bros has released another fun clip from the film, this one showing off arguably the most popular new character (to those who do not know the DC world as well that is) the movie is utilizing, Constantine,  in his element.

In the clip below, Constantine is playing a game of poker in the underworld with what appears to be a group of demons, all of them clearly cheating, and rather upset when Constantine chooses to do the same. The clip ends as the group realizes our hero has altered their cards and break the table in half, and Constantine prepares to fight his way out of the gambling den.

Along with the new clip is an interesting interview Constantine voice-actor (and live-action actor) Matt Ryan recently had with Empire magazine, where he delves into his time as the character Constantine in the film, on NBC and more recently on ‘Arrow,’ and why he loves the character and would enjoy continuing to play the anti-hero. During the interview with Empire, Ryan had plenty to say about role and the opportunities he has been given to play him:

“It’s funny, isn’t it? Doing was great, seeing how he interacts with Oliver and all the characters there, and then to get to explore him in this medium as well is a lot of fun. I love the character. It’s probably my most favorite character that I play, and there’s still so much there to explore with him; so much going on, so much depth to him. And darkness, and wit, and all those things. It’s what made it great to get in the booth and try him on again.”

When speaking about how the ‘Justice League Dark’ version of Constantine differs from what we saw in the Arrowverse, Ryan stated the following:

“I think that the TV universe is a little bit different from the others. Basically we’re just trying to bring what I knew of him, and the voice, and just play him in this context, having him interact with Batman and Zatanna, or Deadman and Swamp Thing. All these relationships which we didn’t get to explore on the TV show was really fun to do, but also in animation he can shoot bolts, and the magic is different. So it is a different universe and he’s slightly different in that context, but still the same guy underneath. The DNA of the character is still there — the wisecracking “magician” who reluctantly does what he does.”

As for how Constantine manages to get involved in the events in ‘Justice League Dark,’ Ryan shared just a little bit about how his character manages to get wrapped up in the events:

“What’s interesting is that he doesn’t want to get involved. There’s lots of bad things happening all over the world and Batman and the Justice League decide that they have to call in someone who knows how to deal with all this stuff. Constantine is thrust upon them from other forces and they have to seek him out. They do so and he reluctantly becomes part of the team with old friends like Zatanna, and all these people who he has various relationships with. He’s the one that knows the most about the archaic world and this one. He leads in that he guides the rest of the team to figuring out what’s going on, and getting to the root of the problem. It’s an interesting journey.”

Make sure to check out the clip for yourself below, and then comment for yourself below on Matt’s performance as Constantine over these past few years and how you think he is doing as the character!

horizontal lineNick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter.