Netflix’s ‘Castlevania’ Season 2: Adi Shankar Interview, Grant DaNasty, Simon Belmont Next In Anime Series?

Castlevania Season 2 has producer Adi Shankar talking up a storm about the upcoming adventures of Trevor Belmont, Alucard, and Sypha Belnades. Netflix has already confirmed that the Castlevania Season 2 release date will be coming in 2018, and this time audiences will be treated to eight episodes, doubling the story length. The real question is, will fans of the video game get to see the pirate character, Grant DaNasty?

When speaking to Nintendo Life, Shankar says the “show was made by fans for fans.” He certainly didn’t want to mangle his own childhood by creating yet another bad video game-to-film adaptation. Unfortunately, when film makers say something was made “for the fans” that’s often a deflection against criticism, but in this case he really means it.

“It’s like, no, [they] didn’t make it for the fans. The fans are the ones who say they didn’t like the movie,” the producer told Inverse in a separate interview. “This was made for people who like games. This show was a love letter to this game.”

The producer says he quit the film industry in Hollywood because the major studios, excluding Marvel, were not respecting the wishes of the fans. Shankar believes storytellers should “preserve our fandom culture” instead of assuming the fans are a pre-existing audience that will show up on a movie’s opening day regardless of the quality of the work. The producer admits he hyped Castlevania and made many promises, but he feels the “general consensus is, ‘Oh wow, he wasn’t just blowing smoke up everyone’s asses. It was legit.'”

The first four episodes acted as a prologue since audiences get to see a different side of Vlad Dracula Tepes, a villain who casts his wrath on eastern Europe only because his wife Lisa was murdered by humanity. Shankar felt that introducing Dracula way before Trevor Belmont enters the scene was an important element to the storytelling.

“Your story is only as good as your villain. We live in a world that isn’t black and white,” Shankar explained. “The show exists in a world that isn’t black and white. So, to have started with Dracula as this ‘monster’ would have been a disservice to not only his character, but to this entire mythology.”

The number of Castlevania Season 2 episodes was originally slated to be only four episodes, but Shankar won’t say whether eight episodes means the second season will include both the second and third act. What he did say was that his team is not a fan of “adding time for the sake of adding time,” so that probably means no filler episodes.

Unfortunately, Adi Shankar would not confirm whether Grant DaNasty will be one of the major Castlevania Season 2 characters.

“I can’t spoil it, because it’s … I’m getting into major spoiler territory,” he said. “You’ll just have to wait and see. I can’t even get into it, because it will become a thing, yeah.”

Grant should only enter the series when Trevor Belmont, Alucard, and Sypha Belnades reach the castle, so it makes sense that the rogue character has not made an appearance yet. Grant was one of four playable characters in the video game Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, but Grant first shows up in a demonic form near Dracula’s castle. The Wallachian man had unsuccessfully fought back against Dracula, only to be transformed into a stone demon guarding a clock tower.

Although the producer would not discuss Grant DaNasty, he was more than willing to discuss the appearance of other Castlevania boss characters. Audiences were already treated to the fight with the cyclops, but there are many other mythological creatures like Medusa and Frankenstein’s monster. The Bone Dragon King should make for a more original anime Castlevania villain, but the bosses only get more interesting once the vampire hunters reach Dracula’s castle.

Shankar says the sub-boss, Death, “opens up a lot of interesting wormholes.” The doppelganger boss will be one of the first times the common video game trope is pulled off in a major TV show. In the game, the doppelganger’s identity changed based on the player’s chosen character, but for the anime, Shankar wouldn’t say how the Castlevania boss would be handled.

Shankar did confirm that writer Warren Ellis has completed the Castlevania Season 2 story script in its entirety but did not want to discuss any spoilers. However, he also says the team has put together a “multi-year plan” that will be “building a much larger narrative.” It sounds like Shankar wants to do Castlevania Season 3 and beyond, telling the full story of the Belmont’s multi-generational fight against vampires.

“I want to do all of it. I want to keep telling stories because ultimately Castlevania is a universe, it’s a story about this family. It’s about generations of this dope [Belmont] family,” he said. “Each generation has their own problems has their own little nuances, and they’re dealing with the realities of the time period that they’re living in.”

It seems doubtful the story of Castlevania Season 2 will introduce Simon Belmont, the descendant of Trevor Belmont and the main protagonist of the first Castlevania video game. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse was a prequel, but it also has a sequel called Castlevania: Curse Of Darkness that shows events three years after Dracula is defeated. With eight episodes to work with, it’s possible the team is planning on finishing the story of Trevor.

Shankar isn’t willing to give those type of details, but he claims Castlevania Season 2 blows the first four episodes out of the water.

“The groundwork has been set. Everyone has their mission now,” Shankar said. “Season 2 is awesome. It’s just frickin’ awesome…. Making this show was a dream come true and I would love to keep making as many seasons of this as they’ll allow me to. As long as the fans keep watching the show and engaging in social media about it then the team and I will be able to tell a lot of Castlevania stories.”

[Featured Image by Netflix]