Though the series premiere of Constantine is still set for Oct. 24, producers are already making some dramatic changes by stubbing out the character played by True Blood alum Lucy Griffiths, like a cigarette you won’t see anyone smoking. Griffiths had already starred in the pilot—and was featured prominently in the trailer—as Liv Aberdeen, daughter of one of the paranormal investigator’s old friends, and one of the show’s overarching plotlines was meant to follow her awakening to the supernatural, after a whole lot of quavering at the supernatural. But now Liv has been written out entirely, with the show replacing her with a character taken from the original Hellblazer comics: Zed, Constantine’s former lover and a powerful sorceress in her own right.
Explaining the decision to remove Griffiths’ character and replace her with someone less naïve, executive producer Daniel Cerone tells Entertainment Weekly that the network wanted a character with attitude, who’s edgy, who’s “in your face,” etc. etc.:
When you put a wide-eyed innocent into that world, she’s just very reactive… Zed is actually one of the first women Constantine meets in the comic books, and she has various psychic powers. We felt ultimately she’s going to service the first season better as someone to pair Constantine up with. She can get in his face a little bit and have some of her own realizations and skills and really push him. But if whoever Constantine is working with is constantly on her heels, that just wouldn’t service the show really well.
It’s unclear exactly when Zed will begin getting in Constantine’s face; at present, she’s just slated for an “early episode,” though her role has yet to be cast. But she’s meant to be the first of a slate of other characters familiar from Hellblazer and the rest of DC’s supernatural realm that will eventually make appearances down the road. For fans of the comics, this is likely welcome news; for fans of discussing how well British people pull off American accents, this is devastating.