Netflix posted a Castlevania teaser named Teaser: Vengeance on their official YouTube channel.
The trailer shows a Nintendo NES, a copy of the Castlevania game and an old VCR. A person blows dust off the game, plugs it into the NES, and turns on the console. The name “Netflix” appears on the VCR, with a list of some of its most popular shows including House of Cards, Stranger Things, and Orange is the New Black. The Castlevania option is chosen, and then the “Play Trailer” option is chosen. The screen shows a few pixelated images then glitches out into the animated trailer. The hype from this trailer comes from its many scenes of intense action and, of course, lots of blood. The trailer finishes out with a woman asking “Who are you?” and a man responding “The man who killed Dracula.”
The new Netflix series, coming July 7, seems to be specifically targeting fans of the series. The trailer itself has accumulated over 2 million views in just six days.
The series will be based on Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, according to CBR.com. The game, released back in 1989, was about a family of vampire hunters named the Belmont’s having to save Europe from Dracula and his army. The main character of the series, Trevor Belmont, is the owner of the Vampire Killer Whip which is shown in the teaser.
Castlevania was announced to be coming to Netflix sometime this year back in February. Warren Ellis (comic book writer, co-writer for video game Dead Space and wrote several Marvel animated series) will be writing the series, Adi Shankar (executive producer for movies The Grey and Dredd) will be producing it and Frederator Studios (The Fairly Odd Parents, Adventure Time), Powerhouse Animation, and Netflix will be animating it, according to Polygon. The description of the new Castlevania, which can be found on Netflix, says “The last surviving member of a disgraced clan fights to save Eastern Europe from Dracula. Inspired by the classic video game series.”
Shankar has been teasing that he will be a part of a new Castlevania series since 2015, posting on Facebook that he will be teaming up with Frederator Studios to produce a “super-violent” animated mini-series, according to A.V. Club. This would make sense since Frederator Studios owns the rights for a Castlevania adaptation. Shankar also teased the next season of Castlevania coming to Netflix in 2018 on Facebook, according to Comicbook.com. That post has since been removed.
In an interview with Collider back in February, Shankar revealed that this video game adaptation will be like no other. “I’m personally guaranteeing that this is going to be the best fucking video game adaptation ever made to date,” he said, “I’ve seen it, and it’s fucking amazing.”
Recent video game adaptations, including movies Warcraft, Assassin’s Creed, and Resident Evil: Final Chapter have received unfavorable reviews from critics. Warcraft received a 28 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 32 out of 100 on Metacritic, Assassin’s Creed received a 17 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 36 out of 100 on Metacritic, and Resident Evil: Final Chapter received a 33 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 49 out of 100 on Metacritic. With the amount of hype this series has, hopefully Netflix will pull through with creating one of the first amazing video game adaptations.
The most recent Castlevania game to be released was Castlevania: Lord of Shadows 2 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 back in 2014. With Konami’s recent shift to pachinko machines, a Castlevania version named CR Pachinko Akumajō Dracula was released back in 2015, according to Kotaku. There have been no recent announcements for any upcoming Castlevania games, so fans have to wait for this animated series to be released.
Featured image via Netflix
