NBC’s Constantine TV series has cast Lost‘s Harold Perrineau, True Blood‘s Lucy Griffiths and True Detective‘s Charles Halford as John Constantine’s friends and allies.
THR reports that the pilot for the planned Hellblazer-based series is rounding out its cast, joining the previously announced Matt Ryan in the lead.
Perrineau (The Matrix sequels, Romeo & Juliet) has been cast as Manny, “an authoritative angel assigned to watch over Constantine. He has the power to step into other people’s bodies, and although he is meant only to observe, Manny will not hesitate to help out if he can save a life.”
Griffiths joins the show as a similar-sounding character to the one played by Rachel Weisz in the continually underrated Keanu Reeves film version: “Liv, the female lead and an offbeat young lady who finds herself teamed with Constantine after she is marked for death by a powerful demon. With the ability to see the supernatural world among us, she becomes a key player in the battle between good and evil.”
Halford, meanwhile, is playing Chas, who will be familiar to Hellblazer fans as the man who is perhaps Constantine’s only true friend. Played by the not-famous-anymore Shia LaBoeuf in the film version, THR’s description suggests that there will be more to this version of Chas than you might expect. “The foreboding Chas possesses powerful survival skills that might possibly be supernatural.”
The pilot will be directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers), who has been away from both the big and the small screen for far too long. Filming begins in Atlanta soon.
You can buy Hellblazer: Original Sins in paperback for £11.94 at Amazon.co.uk and find out more about the comics that inspired the show with new digital magazine Uncanny Comics.
