Aditya "Adi" Shankar is an Indian-American producer. He was the creator and showrunner of the first two seasons of the Netflix Castlevania animated series.
Background[]
Aditya Shankar was born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, to a banking executive and an educator. His family spent his formative years relocating between Chennai, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Rhode Island and Singapore. Shankar studied communications, business, and theater at Northwestern University and graduated in June 2007.
In 2017, Shankar became the creator and showrunner of the first two seasons of the Netflix original animated series, Castlevania. Following the allegations of sexual misconduct and coercion that made the writer of the show, Warren Ellis, leave the production during the fourth season, Shankar was also excluded from the upcoming Castlevania spinoff series, to which he retaliated by suing the production company and specifically Kevin Kolde, one of the executive producers.[1]
Quotes about the animated series[]
- – What about the whole concept of redemption arcs?
- – That I'm totally on board with. Because let's say, let's say Dracula had been a cartoonish villain, then you wouldn't have had in season one. You wouldn't have had that entire backstory of trying to get in touch with this humanity and all that stuff and why all of a sudden his war against humans in the show is justified. So without that backstory, he becomes this like cartoony villain. I just I feel like, it's important to kind of get across that the bad guys are really the heroes of their own narrative.
—Interview: Adi Shankar on Castlevania S2 and Why There's No Such Thing as an Origin Story. Karama Horne (The Beat - October 31, 2018)
Trivia[]
- In the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, Shankar mentions that for a long time Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was his favorite game, although this preference later changed to Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.[2]
- He became a controversial figure on social media after criticizing the use of the character Apu from The Simpsons (believed to have contributed to the cancelation of the character), which some fans objected to.[3]
References[]
- ↑ ‘Castlevania’ Producer Sues After Being Excluded From Netflix Spinoff article at The Hollywood Reporter. August 18, 2021.
- ↑ Castlevania Anniversary Collection - Bonus e-book, page 35. Adi Shankar: "If you'd asked me this question back in late 2017, I would have said Symphony of the Night, because the PlayStation era was when I became a teenager and started to "come of age". However, over the past year I've started to enjoy Soma Cruz's games (Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow) again. I love metroidvania."
- ↑ How To Fix Apu Once And For All at Adi Shankar's BOOTLEG UNIVERSE YouTube channel.
External links[]
- Adi Shankar on Castlevania S2 and Why There's No Such Thing as an Origin Story - Interview at The Beat.
- Castlevania Season 2: Showrunner on Why Dracula Is 'Consumed With Darkness' - Article at IGN.
- Wikipedia
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