What you need to know about Netflix's Castlevania, including release date, latest news, story details, and much more!
Netflix Castlevania Release Date
Netflix released a statement that included a brief rundown of most of the original content set to come out this year via the streaming service. Innocently tucked into the list was a reference to a program titled "Castlevania Season 1, Part 1" and a vague mention of a 2017 release date.
Netflix Castlevania Story
According to Netflix's official description of the show (via IGN), the Castlevania animated series follows "the last surviving member of the disgraced Belmont clan, trying to save Eastern Europe from extinction at the hand of Vlad Dracula Tepe himself."
Furthermore, the plot will be a rough adaptation of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, which makes sense given how deeply that game tapped into the Castlevania mythology. Dracula's Curse told the story of Trevor Belmont and his mission to slay Dracule once more in 1400s Europe. fought to stop Dracula from ravaging Europe in the 1400's. This was also the game that introduced Alucard, Dracula's son.
Netflix Castlevania Details
The show is being helmed by producer Adi Shankar - creator of this Power Rangers short - and written by comic book scribe Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan). Shankar told IGN that Ellis "added so much depth to the material."
An old Facebook post from Shankar also suggests that it could be a "super violent" and "satirical" take on the vampire sub-genre. A recent update from Shankar to IGN, portrays the show in a different light. He describes the show as "Castlevania done in the vein of Game of Thrones." That means that the show will be, in Shankar's words, "R-rated as fuck" and "the best fucking video game adaptation we've had to date."
Frederator Studios, makers of Adventure Time, are behind the animation. The studio had previously stated that they were working on "a project right now that we’re doing that needs to go unnamed, based on one of the most world-famous video games of the last 30 years, that we’ve had in our shop for 12 years without being able to get it started."
To say that this news is unexpected would be quite the understatement. There had been no concrete indication that Konami was even considering such a program much less that they were thinking about releasing it via Netflix.
Specifics aside, the fact that there will soon be a Castlevania show to binge watch is exciting enough on its own. While we'd be lying if we said that this is how we expected Konami to return the franchise to prominence, it's encouraging to know that they still have plans for some of their beloved franchises that don't involve slot machines.
Netflix Castlevania Poster
Castlevania exec producer Adi Shankar has dropped the first official bit of art from the upcoming series in the form of an awesome poster:
That's indeed none other than Dracula's castle, the one that's appeared in countless Castlevania games since 1986. It looks better (creepier) than ever in this poster. Can't wait to see what this show is all about!
