John Constantine Wont Smoke in New NBC Series

In probably one of the oddest turn of events John Constantine will not be smoking in the new TV series that the legendary Neil Marshall is developing for NBC. NBC standards will not allow characters to smoke and for this reason and it appears this reason alone John Constantine will loose one of the most key aspects to his character his addiction to nicotine and in turn his battle with cancer.

I completely understand why NBC is doing this but in the reverse is having this comic book character smoke on the small screen really going to encourage children to smoke when the outcome is he is given a death warrant after cancer cripples him? I suppose that the shows producers and the network feel that they can do without the smoking because they have brought back other aspects of the character that were set aside in the 2005 Constantine film which starred Keanu Reeves. Namely the star of the Constantine TV show is British, has the appropriate accent, blonde hair and sarcasm… but will not smoke.

Although I find this an interesting challenge I do feel that Neil Marshall and his team can do a Constantine film where the character does not light up but they will need to be careful how they do it. Somehow they will need to amplify how bad his cancer is and his addiction was so that people understand how big a part of his character this flaw was.

Explaining this away will be difficult it is almost like explaining how Freddy Kreuger came to be but removing the child abuse and the fire to make the show more ‘PG’. Can it be done? Sure. Should it be done? I am not so sure.

Are you on board for a Constantine television show where the smoking aspect of the character is removed?