DC’s Legends of Tomorrow has doomed John Constantine (Matt Ryan) to die of lung cancer – how can the British warlock escape his grisly fate? Legends of Tomorrow‘s new season 5 mission is to round up history’s greatest villains (dubbed Encores), who are causing chaos across time. The Encores were raised from Hell by Astra Logue (Olivia Swann), who was the young girl Constantine failed to save and was damned to Hell. But Astra’s true motivation is vengeance on John Constantine, whom she solely blames for condemning her to damnation.
In Legends of Tomorrow season 4, Constantine voluntarily traveled to Hell with Nora Darhk (Courtney Ford) to rescue Ray Palmer’s (Brandon Routh) soul from the demon Neron. There, the chain-smoking mage discovered that Astra had grown into an adult in Hell and she’s now his worst enemy. In Legends season 5, John has bowed out of helping the time-traveling heroes round up Astra’s Encores to pursue his own agenda of saving her the way he couldn’t years ago. To Constantine’s chagrin, this meant facing the mistakes of his past and returning to his haunted home in Northumberland, UK, with the help of his apprentice Gary Green (Adam Tsekhman) and Charlie the shapeshifter (Maisie Richardson-Sellers).
Unfortunately for Constantine, Astra took her revenge to a new level of cruelty in this week’s Legends of Tomorrow episode, “A Head of Her Time”. While the Legends were in 1793 France capturing the resurrected Marie Antoinette (who is, mysteriously, a doppelganger of Nora Darhk), Astra sought the help of Hell’s Coin Maker, the devious woman who crafts the magical ducats housing the soul of each of Hell’s inhabitants. Astra wears Constantine’s coin around her neck as a trophy but she asked the Coin Maker to accelerate John’s lung cancer, which he isn’t scheduled to die from for another 10 years. The Coin Maker acquiesced Astra’s request and altered Constantine’s coin. The horrific effects were immediate: John collapsed and began coughing up blood because not only did Astra bring about his cancer faster, but she inflicted it on Constantine all at once.
John Constantine battling lung cancer is Legends of Tomorrow‘s spin on one of the warlock’s seminal stories, “Dangerous Habits”, written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Will Simpson in DC’s Hellblazer comics. One of Constantine’s most popular tales, the British mage had to trick Satan to remove his cancer or else John’s arrival in Hell would spark a civil war that would destabilize the realm of the damned. “Dangerous Habits” was also adapted by the 2005 Constantine feature film starring Keanu Reeves as the nicotine-addicted mage. Both tales ended with Constantine outwitting the Devil and flipping him the middle finger, but will that be how Legends of Tomorrow‘s version of “Dangerous Habits” end as well?
As Legends of Tomorrow‘s showrunner Phil Klemmer told TVLine, adapting “Dangerous Habits” was a priority of the creative team and of Matt Ryan, a devoted expert of the character he plays. However, while Legends plans to “honor” the famous comics tale, Klemmer noted, “there’s no predicting where we’re headed based on the books,” which were “a great launching point.” After all, Constantine 2005 already did a fairly loyal adaptation of the source material and Legends of Tomorrow is a different – and far wackier – beast altogether, albeit a show capable of melding intense character drama with hilarious and bizarre hi-jinks.
So, how can Constantine survive being stricken with lung cancer? Unlike in the comics, John luckily doesn’t have to face his illness alone, thanks to the Legends. The misfit heroes led by Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) also have far more resources for creative solutions at their disposal, specifically time travel. Since Constantine is facing Astra, rather than the Devil, in this version of the story, the warlock will still try to save her soul, even if it costs him his own and he may still sacrifice himself to do so. However, Legends of Tomorrowseason 5 still has a lot of story left to tell – and Encores left to fight – and no doubt, the solution the heroes arrive at to save John Constantine’s life will be surprising and unexpected.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs Tuesdays @ 9pm on The CW.
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