This week marks the release of a new collection of animated shorts from DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation. Anchored by a new adventure featuring Matt Ryan as John Constantine, the collection explores several exciting and previously unseen corners of the DC Universe.
Last week we caught up with several of the creators who have contributed to this new collection, including The House of Mystery director Matt Peters. We chatted with him about exploring more of Constantine’s story following on from Justice League Dark: Apokolips War and plenty more.
GYCO: Hi, Matt. How you doing?
Matt Peters: I’m doing well. How are you?
GYCO: I’m very well, thank you. the house of mystery calls back to such a huge moment for Constantine from the end of Apokolips war. It’s the moment that he refers to as the “first truly noble thing” that he’s ever done. Was that a moment that was something you wanted to revisit after having kind of co-directed Apocalypse war?
MP: We honestly thought that that was the end, then later Rick approached me and he said that he had a House of Mystery short and I was shocked. I said oh my gosh, that’s great because it was a chance to revisit the character and revisit the the situations from the movie before.
GYCO: It just seems so fitting, even as a fan of the character, that after this big noble gesture he wouldn’t actually allow himself to be at peace. What was it like getting to re-focus just on Constantine following that moment and dive into his psyche as a consequence of what he’d done?
MP: In a sense, it’s like I didn’t really get a chance to explore his character as deeply as I could have until we got to this thing and just like you’re saying that they have the story unfold where you’re dealing with a character, the universe but then ends up not being able to comfort you just rejects it. It’s just it’s perfectly that character and it was really fun to be able to do that.
GYCO: Matt Ryan has been playing Constantine on screen for nearly a decade. It must be like second nature to him. What was it like reuniting with him after having worked with him on Apokolips war?
MP: Oh, it’s always great. We get just watch that guy go to town and he is just an inescapable talent. He’s just a sweet person to work with. It’s really our voice director who is doing the heavy lifting and getting the scenes that we want. For us it’s that we get to work as fanboys. We get to sit and listen to him perform and get an opportunity just to say hello to him.
The full interview is coming very soon to the latest episode of our podcast.
The shorts collection is available now from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on Blu-ray and on Digital Download.
