Scripted television is at a point right now where you can find just about any kind of show you desire, but somehow video game adaptations aren't very prevalent. That could change in the future, as it appears the iconic game franchise Castlevania will indeed make the transition to TV, and the project will stockpile coffins over at its extremely popular new home at Netflix. What's more, it looks like the first part of the show's initial season will premiere in 2017. The streaming service really has some bite with this one, right? Right?
Let's all pull out our 8-bit goblets to drink to Castlevania heading to Netflix, because this project sounds extremely badass, even though there aren't a ton of details to be had. The official description describes the animated series in familiar terms, calling it a dark medieval fantasy tracking the last of the Belmont family trying to stop Vlad Dracula Tepe from completely destroying Eastern Europe. One would hope that a show based on the horror game series would start off somewhat simply before expanding the mythos. And we definitely want to see all of this happen.
Having said that, the Castlevania show has one of the best creative minds possible to do the expanding of the mythos, as comic book mastermind Warren Ellis penned the scripts for the series, according to GameSpot. Ellis knows a thing or two about penning dark genre stories, having conceived some outstanding series over the years, such as Transmetropolitan, Trees, Planetary, and countless others, on top of all the superhero comics he's written for. Interestingly, this isn't the first time that Ellis has been tapped to write for a Castlevania project, as he was attached to a direct-to-DVD animated feature based on Castlevania: Dracula's Curse, the third game in the franchise. Nothing ever became of that, though, so let's hope Netflix is better about making things happen, so that we can killer animation put to hair-raising moments like this.
We-e-e-ell, maybe hair-raising was a little strong. As previously announced, the animated Castlevania series will be produced by Frederator Studios, where it will likely be the most adult project in the company's library. Frederator's most popular series are Adventure Time and Fairly OddParents, for an example of what audiences are used to seeing from it. Basically the only worry I have is that I will want to see Finn and Jake helping Simon and Leon Belmont on their quests.
Adi Shankar, a producer for Dredd and a string of popular (and violent) fan films like The Punisher: Dirty Laundry and Power Rangers, will also be producing Castlevania. He had previously revealed this project's existence, saying it would be dark and satirical, and that it will be a complete subversion of the traditional vampire genre. And, of course, he also said it would be super-violent, and we all know Netflix doesn't do much by way of censoring projects.
Talks about a Castlevania TV series were more timely last year and before, as the franchise celebrated its 30th anniversary, but no one is going to complain about the show popping up in 2017. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a bit longer to hear more details, such as casting info and a release date. In the meantime, head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what's coming to the small screen soon, and check out some other video games that would make great TV shows.
