As is the case with every year, 2014 has seen a slew of new television shows which were axed by year’s end. We may be entered the age of comic book property over-saturation, but this year’s newcomers in the genre – Fox’s Gotham, the CW’s Arrow spinoff The Flash and NBC’s Constantine are still around. Of these, however, the chronicle of DC/Vertigo’s magician/con man is struggling the most.

Despite a strong mid-season finale, the show’s first season episodes have been cut to a total of 13, and despite a brief spike in the ratings, a Season 2 for Constantine is very much up in the air. Still, star Matt Ryan’s turn as the titular sorcerer remains one of the show’s strengths. Like Arrow star Stephen Amell, it remains to be seen whether or not we could see Ryan folded into Warner Bros. and DC’s cinematic universe in some form.

Ryan recently spoke to The Mirror (by way of Cinema Blend) about Constantine, providing details on how he won the role despite the wild beard and long hair he was sporting at the time, due to his role in Henry V in the West End. He also spoke about the 2005 Keanu Reeves version of Constantine, saying:

I liked the movie for what it was as a standalone movie. It’s not in the same space in my head though. Since I started this, I’ve delved into the comics and not really thought about the film. What’s funny is, I went out to dinner with a friend of mine the other day and she said, ‘Oh, a producer friend of mine is coming’, and he was the original producer of the Constantine movie. That was funny.

Ryan also praised producers David Goyer and Daniel Cerone: “I couldn’t ask for better producers in terms of the support they give me, they championed me from the beginning for this role.” As for whether or not Ryan’s John Constantine might show up in the big-screen DC movie universe at some point, Ryan had this to say:

I’m not sure. The show’s made by Warner Bros., which has the deal with DC, and it’s licensed to NBC, so I don’t know how the ins and outs of that work. But as an actor, how amazing would that be to do a crossover?

Matt Ryan is clearly up for it, but it sounds like the rights issues and long-term plans in place are unknown to him at this point. Given Guillermo del Toro’s recent comments that his Justice League Dark project – supposedly titled Dark Universe - would actually be a part of DC’s inter-connected universe, not to mention his interest in seeing Matt Ryan play the part in a film, just how likely is such a notion?

In the past, DC head Geoff Johns has taken a hard line on the separation of the DC movie and TV realms, only to update his point of view by calling them ‘a multiverse,’ which in theory leaves the possibility of a movie crossover alive. We’ll probably never see Constantine cross paths with Batman or Superman, but the idea of the character joining, say, Deadman or Swamp Thing in a story which edges into the magical realm of Shazam might not be completely out of the picture.

Constantine returns to NBC on January 16, 2015 @8pm.