'Arrow' EP Teases Constantine's Arrival, 'The Flash' Crossover, and the Flash Fo

“It was a combination of some planning on our part and a lot of good luck and serendipity,” Wendy Mericle tells TheWrap of Matt Ryan’s appearance as Constantine.

With the return of CW's 'Arrow' means the arrival of new characters and some you might have already seen. During the end of last week's episode, it was teased that John Constantine would appear in the brand new episode of the hit show which airs tonight!

"“We always planned to explore mysticism and magic this season [on ‘Arrow’], and we have obviously been huge fans of Constantine as a character and the series, so we really felt we had this opportunity… it just sort of all came together,” showrunner Wendy Mericle told TheWrap. “I’d say it was a combination of some planning on our part and a lot of good luck and serendipity on getting Constantine.”

The magic and mysticism started when Damien Darhk (portrayed by Neal McDonough), the season's big villain who himself plays apart in the Dark Acts happening on this season of the show.

This season, the show resurrected one of their deceased characters, Sara Lance, who was once the Black Canary. But, the problem was that yes, Sara was brought back to life via Lazarus Pit, but she returned without her soul. So, who do you call to help with that? A John Constantine arrives to Star City in tonight's episode to help perform a soul restoration to the once Sara Lance.

Below, Mericle discusses, with The Wrap, honoring the Constantine of the cancelled NBC show, spills some scoop on the upcoming crossover between "The Flash," and teases when the show will return the attention to the big flash forward death hinted in the season premiere in October.

The Wrap: Constantine’s appearance on “Arrow” right now seems very serendipitous. How much of that was planning and how much of it was luck?

Wendy Mericle: We always planned to explore mysticism and magic this season on the show, and we have obviously been huge fans of Constantine as a character and the series, so we really felt we had this opportunity when we had this storyline where we needed to have Sara have her soul restored. It just seemed like he was the perfect DC character, Matt Ryan was available and DC was excited to have him do this episode with us, and it just sort of all came together. I’d say it was a combination of some planning on our part and a lot of good luck and serendipity on getting Constantine. There are obviously a lot of other characters in the DC universe who could do something like this, but we were lucky enough to get Constantine.

The Wrap: Do you think this appearance would have happened if “Constantine” hadn’t been canceled?

Wendy Mericle: That’s an excellent question. I know that we have an expanded universe over here with “Legends” and “The Flash” and I don’t know how much DC wants to have other bring in networks – it probably would have been more of a CW-NBC conversation. I actually don’t know what would have happened if the show was still on the air. My gut instinct is it would have been less likely, because of scheduling and availability and whatnot, but creatively it obviously would have been a different conversation.

The Wrap: Did you try to keep him the same character as he was on his show, or did you see this as a chance to reinvent the character a bit?

Wendy Mericle: No, we wanted to honor the NBC show. Brian Ford Sullivan and Oscar Balderrama, who wrote the episode, I think did an outstanding job of really capturing his voice on the show and bringing it over to our universe. We were also lucky enough to contact people from “Constantine” and have his lighter and his wardrobe and just really honor the show by having it as close as possible to what existed on the NBC version.

The Wrap: Are there going to be any references to storylines from “Constantine”?

Wendy Mericle: There really aren’t. That’s one one thing we tried to do, keep it as part of our universe, and not overcomplicate matters by bringing over what had happened on NBC. There are a couple of lines with nods to a couple of episodes, but that is it. We tried to really keep it within our universe.

The Wrap: Barry Allen brought a very different tone to “Arrow” during his first appearance. Is that going to be the case here as well with Constantine?

Wendy Mericle: Absolutely. Matt Ryan knows this character inside and out, and he really brought it to the show. He has a lot of charm and a lot of swagger and brings a very different tone, that is also in keeping with the direction we’ve been going in this season. It’s a little bit lighter, we’re writing a few more jokes here and there, which is fun, and Constantine and Matt Ryan’s portrayal of him really fit into the new context of the show this season.

The Wrap: Obviously I have to ask if we’ll see more of him, whether returning to “Arrow” or even on his own series again.

Wendy Mericle: Obviously so many fans would love to see him come back [on his own show]. That’s not something we can do. We’d love to have him back. Right now it’s just this one episode this season, but you never know what the future’s going to hold. This is what we have for right now, and we feel very lucky with that.

The Wrap: So maybe it’s a matter of fans rallying behind the idea and then maybe something could happen?

Wendy Mericle: Yeah, I don’t know, that’s a good question. I know we listen to fans, I know DC listens, Warner Bros. I don’t know what the response would be to a campaign of that sort, but obviously there’s always that symbiotic relationship because we know our fans are really devoted. We know how much they love both “Arrow” and “Constantine,” so who knows?

The Wrap: You just finished shooting this year’s big crossover with “The Flash” and “Legends.” How did it go, what can you tell us?

Wendy Mericle: The crossover went amazing. It’s probably one of the biggest in terms of scope and ambition and sheer number of characters we’re putting on screen and interacting together. The last time we did this was obviously last year in 308 and obviously Barry in 208 in Season 2, and this is bigger than all of that. It’s really exciting. It’s very much in the “Arrow” universe, but it’s cool, we’re doing some fights in daylight and it has a different feel to it. It really does feel like an extended universe in a way that I don’t know that we’ve experienced yet. It’s going to be fun.

The Wrap: We’re all expecting the crossover to really set up “Legends” but will it also have repercussions for the rest of the season of “Arrow” and “Flash”?

Wendy Mericle: Absolutely. Like with Constantine, part of the reason we did was it fit in with one of the storylines we wanted to do with our characters and that is the same here. Oliver will have a very emotional and surprising storyline with Felicity in 408 that will have huge repercussions the rest of the season. And on the “Flash” side, the same goes for Barry as well.

The Wrap: We haven’t gone back to that flash-forward in the season premiere since that episode. When will we pick that storyline back up again?

Wendy Mericle: We will see a little bit, a hint of it in 409 and possibly 410. And then, towards the end of the season, it will all be revealed.

CW's "Arrow" airs Wednesday Nights @ 8 pm/7c and "The Flash" airs Tuesday Nights at 8pm/7 c

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