Castlevania (animated series)

Castlevania is an animated series based on the game Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, released on Netflix worldwide. The first season consists of four episodes of 23-25 minutes each, which all premiered on July 7th, 2017.

The series is based on the Dracula's Curse story, incorporating elements from other games such as Symphony of the Night and Curse of Darkness. It features Trevor Belmont as the main protagonist, on a quest to stop the evil Dracula who seeks to destroy humanity following the execution of his wife Lisa.

The series was well-recieved by fans and critics, who praised its animation, visuals and story, while season 1 was criticized as being too short.

A second season was ultimately confirmed by Adi Shankar to release in October 26th, 2018, after being delayed from a July 2018 release. A third season was confirmed on June 7, 2018.

Synopsis
"A vampire hunter fights to save a besieged city from an army of otherworldly beasts controlled by Dracula himself. Inspired by the classic video game."

- Official Netflix synopsis

Season 1

 * Castlevania
 * Targoviste, Wallachia
 * Gresit, Wallachia

Season 2

 * Castlevania

Production
In March 2007, writer Warren Ellis announced that he was working on a DVD movie adapted from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse along with former Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi. Ellis explained that as he worked with Igarashi to fit the timeline of the series, including writing a new story, Igarashi had eight rewritten pre-production materials, before concluding with a draft that he turned in August 2008.

After that, however, nothing else was heard about the project until February 2017, when co-producer Adi Shankar and Netflix announced it would be released as a series. Kevin Kolde and Fred Seibert are also signed on, as are Seibert's animation company, Frederator Studios.

The show influences has been described by the producer Adi Shankar to be from Japanese anime such as Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Ninja Scroll, as well as western animation such as Young Justice. It has also been stated by Shankar to be "R-rated as f**k", "super-violent", and to have a Game of Thrones vibe.

The series was written by Warren Ellis, who was in charge of writing the script for the now defunct Dracula's Curse animated movie adaptation. Ellis worked at Marvel and developed Hellstorm: Prince of Lies, the acclaimed cyberpunk series Transmetropolitan, and more recently the award-winning FreakAngels series. The movie Red is based on his graphic novel, Red.

A teaser trailer was released on May 24th, 2017. The series was finally released worldwide at midnight (PST time) on July 7th, 2017. Season 2 was officially announced a few hours later on the same day of the release.

On the day of the release of season 1, Netflix officially announced a second season consisting of 8 episodes to premiere in 2018. In January 19th, 2018, Warren Ellis stated that the second season was to arrive in Summer 2018. On June 7, it was confirmed that the series was renewed for a third season and that production would begin in the near future.

On July 25, 2017, Richard Armitage (Trevor Belmont's voice actor) announced they had completed the voice work for season 2.

Trivia

 * The second teaser poster released for this series is inspired by the cover art from the original Castlevania video game, which in turn was based on Norseman, a painting by Frank Frazetta.

Related products

 * Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse — The game this series is based on.
 * Castlevania Music from the Netflix Original Series — The soundtrack to the series.