Before The Super Mario Bros. Movie broke onto the big screen and The Last of Us onto the small, Netflix ran four seasons of Castlevania, an animated show based on Konami’s popular series of vampire hunting video games. Taking heavy inspiration from anime, the show was a pulpy affair, with a lot of gore and overwrought baroque touches, and also a fair bit of Game of Thrones-esque politicking, weirdly.
It was a hit, and now Netflix is back with a sequel: Castlevania: Nocturne, which seems very much in the style of the original. Watch the trailer below:
Castlevania: Nocturne will pit vampire hunter Richter Belmont against “a vampire messiah…the devourer of light who will eat the sun.” I’m going to take a brave stance and say that sounds bad.
Castlevania: Nocturne partly based on Symphony of the Night
The original Castlevania show borrowed plot elements from all over the game series, but was most directly inspired by Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, which first came out in 1989. Nocturne seems to take most of its inspiration from 1993’s Castlevania: Rondo of Blood — that’s where Richter Belmont first appears — and its iconic sequel, 1997’s Symphony of the Night.
And then they’ll make up a lot of stuff; I don’t remember the French Revolution playing into many Castlevania games. And that’s fine; video games aren’t known for having fleshed out plots, especially action games from the ’90s.
Castlevania: Nocturne will drop on Netflix on September 28.
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