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[Updated November 1, 2018] Netflix releases PR statement confirming Castlevania Season 3.
The story for Netflix’s Castlevania Season 3 is already known according to showrunner Adi Shankar. What’s more, voice actor Richard Armitage, who plays the role of Trevor Belmont, claims that voice recording for Castlevania Season 3 already started during the summer.
Back in June 2018, Armitage said that even though the “second season hasn’t been aired yet” that “we’re about to record a third.” The series was originally supposed to be a movie by the director Sylvan White but ended up stuck in development hell, so Armitage also expressed hopes for a live-action Castlevania movie in the future.
“I love my character in Castlevania… he’s this anti-heroic, drunk, slightly foul-mouthed, irritable git!” Armitage said. “I feel like it would make the most brilliant live-action piece. It’s slightly anarchic and humorous – we don’t often see vampire heroics in that vein. One day, maybe.”
Near the day of the Castlevania Season 2 release date, Shankar was asked in an interview about the screenwriting process and he said it was “pretty straightforward” since the “seasons continue into one another.” It was also revealed that scriptwriter Warren Ellis had already mapped out the second season well before the first season released.
“We never wanted to do that thing as a team where we’re making it up as we go along,” Shankar explained. “The course for season 2 was set before season 1 came out – we mapped this whole thing out. It was pretty straightforward – we have one of the best writers in the world, Warren Ellis, handling these scripts. He’s a great writer and he also comes from comic books.”
Shankar was asked point-blank whether the Castlevania Season 3 release date was lurking in the nearby shadows but, unlike Armitage, Shankar wasn’t ready to claim it was coming soon.
“No timeline yet for season 3,” Shankar said. “We know what the story is, but beyond that, no announcements yet.”
However, Netflix itself announced via a press release that a third season was greenlit for production. The Castlevania Season 3 release date was not specified, but the third season will receive 10 episodes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru8lXnLBgYM
Castlevania Season 3 likely to be based on Castlevania: Curse Of Darkness
Castlevania Season 3 will be based on the beloved video game franchise and it’s possible the animated adaptation could eventually adapt Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night. The gaming masterpiece is one of Shankar’s top five video game favorites and in 2018 ported to the PS4 as part of the two-part Castlevania Requiem.
In the past, Shankar claimed his team built a “multi-year plan” that will be “building a much larger narrative” which builds into the Belmont’s multi-generational fight against creatures of the night.
“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 in 2017. “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.”
Technically, the first and second season was based on the third video game, Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse. The animated adaptation skipped the first two games because the entire game series’ story has been told out of chronological order, whereas the Netflix series started near the beginning.
The official Castlevania timeline is pretty confusing since the chronological order begins with Castlevania: Lament Of Innocence, a 2003 PlayStation 2 game that was skipped by Shankar’s team. This PS2 game starred Leon Belmont and shows how Trevor’s ancestors became renowned vampire killers.
To summarize that story, Leon loses his fiancee and decides to take revenge on the traitorous Mathius, who desires to become an immortal vampire because he wants revenge on God. Mathius survives the fight against Leon and changes his name to Vlad Tepes, who we all know as Dracula.
Warning: The following contains potential major spoilers for Castlevania Season 3.
After the Castlevania 3 game, the next major story event is the 2005 PlayStation game Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. Assuming the game is the basis for the next Netflix sequel, Castlevania Season 3 will be set three years after the ending of Season 2. While Wallachia is at peace, Dracula’s curse is still causing famine and poverty and Trevor is investigating rumors of Dracula worshipers.
The second season has already introduced audiences to the Devil Forgemaster Hector, who was originally only featured in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. Hector has learned the dark arts and he knows how to forge demonic creatures.
Disgusted by his master’s cruel methods, Hector defected from Dracula’s army and attempts to lead a peaceful life. But Dracula’s friend, Isaac, conspires to kill Hector’s wife, Rosaly, due to Hector’s role in Dracula’s downfall.
Seeking vengeance for his wife’s death, Hector tracks Isaac to Dracula’s castle and finds it morphed by dark magic. Trevor and Hector eventually meet up and the two men band together to stop Dracula’s resurrection.
Not is all as it may seem. Without spoiling the ending, there is a hidden enemy manipulating everyone from the shadows.
Castlevania Season 4 likely to have a time jump in the story
Assuming that Castlevania Season 3 finishes the story of Hector and Trevor Belmont, the fourth season will be set about a hundred years later. Set in 1576, the legend of Dracula declares, “Once every 100 years, when the faith in God is forgotten, Dracula will come back to life.”
This time gap is due to an old decision by the Konami game developers, who decreed that Dracula resurrects once every hundred years.
“That was a bad decision,” Castlevania game developer Koji Igarashi said back in 2007. “Since Dracula only appears every 100 years, we made the whole timeline and ran out of places to put in another game. I made the timeline, but I shouldn’t have actually released it, because now it’s all official.”
Game developers were eventually forced to reboot the entire series for the more recent Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow series, but Castlevania Season 4 will turn to the oldest video games for inspiration. The 1989 Game Boy title Castlevania: The Adventure and the 1991 Castlevania 2: Belmont’s Revenge focus on Christopher Belmont, one of Trevor’s descendants.
The plot and character development are pretty skeletal for the earlier games so writer Ellis should have plenty of freedom to flesh out the story. To summarize, Castlevania Season 4 will have Christopher defeating Dracula only to realize 15 years later that the vampire survived the encounter.
Dracula creates four castles and takes control of the mind of Christopher’s son, Soleiyu Belmont. As might be guessed, daddy is angry and the vampire killer goes on a quest to put Dracula down for another hundred year dirt nap.
In the long-run, it’s guaranteed that Adi Shankar will want to stake a claim to adapting Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night. Unfortunately, Castlevania Season 3 and 4 won’t bridge that gap since there are two more games, the 2002 Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance and the 1993 Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, that occur in the official timeline before Alucard awakens from his slumber to become the main protagonist. Let’s just hope Shankar’s team is given the green light by Netflix to take the animated series all the way to the end.