Third season of Castlevania on its way to Netflix, scripted by Warren Ellis

By John Freeman on November 1, 2018

Hot on the heels of Season Two, a third, 10 episode, season of animated medieval fantasy Castlevania is on its way to Netflix, again scripted by Warren Ellis.

The Castlevania anime, based on the Konami video game, pits a grief-crazed Dracula (voiced by Graham McTavish) taking revenge against humanity for the death of his wife against the last member of the disgraced Belmont clan, Trevor (Richard Armitage), who’s trying to save Eastern Europe from extinction at the vampire’s hands.

Castlevania was a huge hit amongst fans on its debut, so confirmation of a third season shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as Digital Spy reported earlier this year that recording sessions were taking place before the second run of episodes had even launched.

“We’re about to record a third,” Richard Armitage, who voices the character Trevor Belmont, told Digital Spy in June. “The second season hasn’t been aired yet, but we’re about to do a third.”

Initially conceived way back in 2007 as an 80-minute straight-to-DVD feature, Castlevania was in development hell for a long time and the project has gone through many different iterations – including a live-action movie, before it landed on Netflix.

Comics writer Warren Ellis has been the one constant throughout its long journey to Neteflix, even though he freely admits he never played the game that inspired it.

“I’ve never played or even seen the game,” he told Paste last year, in an interview detailing the show’s development. “Terrible, isn’t it?

“When I was first contacted about Castlevania, some 10 years ago, I went to the internet to look it up, and what immediately struck me was how it initially appeared, to me, at least, to be a Japanese transposition of the Hammer Horror films I grew up with and loved. I’m sure that’s a completely wrong-headed perception, by the way, but that’s how it hit me, and how I realised I could write a medieval horror fiction while obeying the ground rules of the work being adapted.”

• Castlevania Season Two is streaming now on Netflix: www.netflix.com

• Warren Ellis is online at www.warrenellis.com and if you’re interested in writing -including comics writing – I recommend you sign up for his newsletter, which is always a treat

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John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.