The Sandman's Johanna Constantine Explained
Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes graphic novel.
Confusion and controversy surround the character of Johanna Constantine, who appears in Netflix's upcoming The Sandman show. In The Sandman graphic novels, John Constantine makes an appearance, and the original casting left it unclear as to whether Johanna Constantine was a replacement for him. Early interviews further obfuscated the connections between Johanna Constantine and the characters featured in the original DC Comics series that the show is adapting.
The confusion and controversy started in April 2021 when it was first announced that Coleman would be playing Lady Johanna Constantine. This resulted in several outlets reporting that The Sandman would have Coleman playing a female version of warlock John Constantine. In the graphic novels, Lady Johanna Constantine is a different character who is an ancestor of John Constantine from the 18th Century and was created by writer Neil Gaiman and artist Michael Zulli specifically for The Sandman graphic novel series.
Related: Netflix's The Sandman: Every Character Explained
The story around Coleman's character became more confusing when it was later confirmed in September 2021 that Coleman would be playing two roles and that Netflix's The Sandman adaptation would also feature Coleman playing a woman named Johanna Constantine in the modern-day. This saw another spate of complaints that echoed rebutted complaints regarding Gwendoline Christie playing Lucifer in the series. According to Neil Gaiman, Coleman's casting in the dual roles was entirely related to practicality and suitability for the role, tied to dancing around some dicey legal issues regarding the rights to John
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