Good news gamers and vampire hunters! Producer Adi Shankar (The Grey, Dredd) announced via Facebook, that he is working on an animated Castlevania TV series for Netflix. Joining Shankar is writer Warren Ellis (RED graphic novel, Dead Space), and Executive Producers Kevin Kolde (Adventure Time) and Fred Seibert (Adventure Time, The Fairly OddParents).
For those unfamiliar with the long-running Konami franchise, Castlevania made its North American debut in 1987 on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). In the original game, you play the hero Simon Belmont, a vampire hunter who travels to Castlevania, Dracula’s castle, to take on the main vampire himself. Since then, there have been over 30 Castlevania titles available for consoles, handhelds, computers and mobile phones.
As for this new series, Shankar told IGN that “this is very much Castlevania done in the vein of Game of Thrones” and that the series will be R-rated. He also boasts that “this is going to be the best f*****g video game adaptation we’ve had to date.” That might sound like a tall order, but Castlevania very well could be one of the best adaptations we’ll see. We’ve recently seen a revival of big name video game movies such as Assassin’s Creed, Warcraft, Hitman: Agent 47, and Need for Speed, and while some of them have come close to being solid video game adaptions these movies still have their problems in terms of plot, adherence to the source material, character portrayals, and so on.
In the same IGN interview, Shankar confirmed the plot of the new series. It will be based on Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, a prequel to the original Castlevania. While Shankar couldn’t reveal any plot details, according to Netflix the “dark medieval fantasy” series will focus on “the last surviving member of the disgraced Belmont clan, trying to save Eastern Europe from extinction at the hand of Vlad Dracula Tepe himself.” This sounds exactly like the plot of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. In that game, released in 1990 on the NES, you play Trevor Belmont, Simon Belmont’s ancestor, who must stop Dracula before he completely annihilates late 1400’s Europe. Trevor is joined by the sorceress Sypha Belnades, the pirate Grant Dynasty, and Dracula’s son Alucard. It looks like we’re in for a treat.
Castlevania Season 1, Part 1 will be four 30-minute episodes. No official date has been announced on when this series will be on Netflix, but Season 1 Part 1 will be released in Q4 2017.
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