Sadly, this year brought the announcement that the widely popular Cartoon Network series Adventure Time is coming to an end, though we still thankfully have two more seasons to come, which includes the mystery-solving miniseries Islands. The show's production company, Frederator, is already hard at work on a new series that will probably get an entire fandom celebrating, should everything pan out accordingly. Here's studio head Fred Seibert offering a short plan for Frederator's future, in which he appears to be confirming the long-gestating adaptation of the best-selling video game series Castlevania.
We have a project 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 twelve years without being able to get it started. But there were great characters and a great story, and eventually we got it going.
Fred Seibert is an animation giant at this point, having worked for years with Hanna-Barbera and Nickelodeon before going independent with Frederator, but his secret-telling skills weren't quite as impressive during his interview with the Nick Animation podcast. Sure, he did a fine job not actually divulging what this new project is, but in doing so, he kind of ignored the fact that it's already public knowledge that Frederator owns the rights to any Castlevania adaptations. Obviously, not everyone is going to be privy to such things, but it's enough that trying to keep this project a mystery just seems silly.
Silliness aside, though, how amazing would this be, if it is indeed Castlevania getting the animated treatment? Granted, Frederator Studios is known for big, bright and colorful series such as The Fairly OddParents and Fanboy & Chum Chum, so the dark and gothic world of Castlevania doesn't immediately sound like the most likely next step. But considering how imaginative Adventure Time and others are/were, the aesthetic change shouldn't be an insurmountable challenge. (Like, say, some of the Castlevania games.)
It was only last year when a Castlevania animated series was first announced with some legitimacy, and Frederator was working on it in conjunction with producer Adi Shankar, best known for working on violent projects such as those Power Rangers and Punisher short films, as well as movies like Killing Them Softly and Dredd. Unfortunately, little more came out of that, until maybe now. Hopefully Shankar will hit up social media with some news soon.
It is, of course, worth taking a second to acknowledge that Fred Seibert might not be talking about Castlevania here at all, and we might actually one day get to watch a new TV show about Q*bert or Pole Position. But I'm certainly hoping to see some high-octane vampire-hunting action in the future from Frederator. That would be mathematical!
Head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what the small screen has to offer as we wait to hear about more from Frederator.
