No, Constantine may not be a bottom (officially), but he’s certainly exs with King Shark.
A new DC Comics animated film has confirmed that a beloved bisexual character once dated the villainous shark man. According to CBR.com, the new film Justice League Dark: Apokolips War includes bisexual detective with paranormal powers John Constantine. To the surprise of many fans, the former relationship between Constantine and villain King Shark was revealed.
https://twitter.com/Jo_Zatarra/status/1257539113630269441
After the movie was released and fans expressed their varying reactions to the reveal online, which you can find dispersed throughout this article, screenwriter Mairghread Scott noted her surprise that the line was approved for the final edit.
“I can’t believe they let me write this,” she admitted through Twitter.
“I was expecting to hear from twitter folks thirsty for tortured, sad, bearded Superman, but I truly underestimated thirsty monster-f*cker twitter,” she later added.
https://twitter.com/MairghreadScott/status/1257734638581104640?s=20
https://twitter.com/MairghreadScott/status/1257745978888601600?s=20
She then elaborated more on the moment, writing it, and seeing the reaction to it while talking to CBR.com.
“I didn’t expect that to be quite such a thing,” Scott explained. “I knew that movie was going to have Suicide Squad in it and I have always loved Gail Simone’s work and she had King Shark work with Suicide Squad for a while… And I thought it’d be really funny, since Constantine is such a disaster, if he slept with someone on the Suicide Squad.”
Once she’d decided on that, Scott reveled in writing the moment.
“There was a draft that kind alluded to that idea, as they’re going to the Suicide Squad, he’s worried because he’s going to run into his ex,” she continued. “So the idea is that everyone assumes it’s Harley, but then you find out it’s King Shark because, obviously, Constantine is a little crazy but he’s not that crazy.”
It’s art.
— Dani Carr (@ItsDaniCarr) May 5, 2020
Let’s appreciate the fact that Constantine thinks going out with Harley is crazier than going out with a giant killer shark mutant
— Chetzale (@tatobamain) May 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/MairghreadScott/status/1257735767889084417?s=20
Though it wasn’t all fun and jokes for Scott. She was conscious of the need to represent a bisexual character right.
“Constantine has always been about Zatanna, this shows Constantine is bi,” she expressed. “People think he dated Harley but, it turns out, he dated one of the dudes and I just thought it was really funny. There was a draft where we got into why their relationship worked because Constantine is magic, he could understand what King Shark was trying to say and that’s why they had a relationship, but that sort of got cut for time.”
The guy had exposition sex with the spirit of a city.
Honestly, having sex with a shark man is less surprising or strange… or gross…— Mickael J/FERMEZ LA (@MJ_FERMEZ_LA) May 5, 2020
Shape of Water, but it's John Constantine & King Shark. Weirdly, it is still Michael Shannon trying to hurt them.
— New Year, Same Hell Site (@Royce_A_Miller) May 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/thezpectre/status/1257712034889830406?s=20
Yes, it seems more about the relationship would have been explored in the R rated animation movie. Unfortunately, that exploration was edited out of the final product. As executive producer James Tucker told We Got This Covered:
“I can’t remember exactly what happened to get to that. We were in a room, and when you’re breaking story, it’s like making a stew: everyone’s cutting up bits and throwing it into the pot. And the bits that get made are often ingredients that multiple people had contributed. Somebody had said something about Constantine’s ex, and somebody else said Constantine and King Shark should have had a thing. Or it might have been another character and somebody said, ‘Oh, maybe King Shark,’ the least likely candidate. If it made me laugh in the room, I would say ‘Yeah, let’s go for it.’ But then what happened is that the script came in and there was a whole page about them. I was like, ‘No, that’s too much.’ Let someone write fan fic about it. The alchemy of writing is that you put in more than you need and then you strip away. So that scene was like a page and a half more than it needed to be.”
But even if the scene was created with the intention to expand and explore Constantine’s sexual orientation, including an ex that’s half-man half-animal mutant is an… interesting choice. But how did the fandom receive it? According to the tweets dispered in their article and across the internet, fans took it exceedingly well.
https://twitter.com/mhurgle/status/1257790560036945920?s=20
King shark does look like constantines type. He loves himself a rugged man.
— ✨Orlando✨ (@orlandodsanchez) May 5, 2020
So did Constantine.
— CoolsomeXD (He/Him) The Smiling Man. (@CoolsomeXD) May 5, 2020
Sources: CBR.com, We Got This Covered,
