The Big Picture

Castlevania: Nocturne introduces an entirely new cast of characters and takes place 300 years after the original series, during the French Revolution. The Netflix show draws from the Castlevania video games Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night but remixes the storylines rather than adapting them directly. The creators feel pressure to continue delivering thrilling action sequences and fight scenes, but also find it exciting to explore new characters and their abilities. They aim to balance fan service with a focus on the characters and story of Nocturne.

Warning: This interview contains spoilers for the entire first season of Castlevania: Nocturne.It’s been more than two years since vampire-hunter Trevor Belmont and his allies, the mage Sypha and the half-human/half-vampire Alucard, defeated Death himself and got their happy ending in the Castlevania series finale. But as anyone who’s played the popular series of Castlevania videogames knows, the timeline spans generations, with the Belmont family fighting Dracula and various demonic forces throughout history. So maybe it wasn’t too big of a surprise when Netflix announced a sequel/spinoff series, Castlevania: Nocturne, the first season of which debuted in full on the streamer this week.

Nocturne stars an entirely new cast of characters (well, for the most part — more on that in a bit) and moves the action forward 300 years to the French Revolution. With societal unrest brewing, Richter Belmont (Edward Bluemel), who watched his mother get murdered by a particularly powerful vampire-magician as a child, is forced to battle an approaching darkness that comes in the form of a prophesied vampire messiah. Coming to his aid are Maria (Pixie Davies), a young mage who can summon magical animal helpers out of thin air, her equally skilled mother, Tera (Nastassja Kinski), and Annette (Thuso Mbedu), an ex-slave and sorceress from the island that is now Haiti.

The show draws most of its characters and some of its plot from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the latter of which is likely the videogame series’ most popular installment. Though, as with the original show, Nocturne remixes the games’ storylines more than it adapts them. Behind the scenes, Nocturne does arrive courtesy of a new head writer in series creator Clive Bradley (replacing Warren Ellis, who guided the original show). But the rest of the Castlevania team remains largely intact, and that includes directors Sam and Adam Deats, along with co-showrunner and producer Kevin Kolde. In this exclusive interview with Collider, Kolde and the brothers Deats discuss their nervousness in bringing back Castlevania in a brand-new form, how they keep topping themselves when it comes to animated action spectacle, and the season’s shocking (and supremely exciting) final moments.

Image via Netflix

COLLIDER: So with this kind of spinoff/sequel series, the big question is always: Can lightning strike twice? Can they pull this off again at this level of quality?

SAM DEATS: I hope so!

In the case of Castlevania: Nocturne, I thought the answer to that question was a resounding “yes.” I loved this season of TV. I think it expands the universe in smart and exciting ways. So congratulations on the show!

ADAM DEATS: Thank you so much. It means a lot to hear that.

KEVIN KOLDE: Thank you! [Laughs] This interview is over!

Hey, we’re just beginning! So let’s start at the actual beginning. At what point did you guys start considering a spinoff to the original Castlevania series, looking at other possible characters and other possible points on the Castlevania timeline that you could turn your attention to? When did those discussions start?

KEVIN: It actually started during the original series. We kind of planned the original series to end with the four seasons. The story was heading to a natural conclusion. But I think for all of us, in terms of our association and fandom with Castlevania … the timeline is extensive and rich, so the intention was always to explore further down the timeline. Other Belmonts and other characters. So it started pretty early on.

SAM: Even before it being an official discussion, we were joking about how it would be fun to do this or do that, from way back in the day. So this has been a years-long thing that we naturally wanted to creep our way towards.

ADAM: And in terms of lightning striking twice: There’s always an anxiety there. Even in the opening Netflix announcement, I said we’re doing the risky thing, and we’re going to go for it again. It’s scary. The thing that I’m proud of most is that, when I entered this industry, I didn’t know if I would ever be working on a series. We fell into Castlevania pretty late, doing videogame trailers and cut scenes and stuff. And when we finally got to do [a show], the one thing I was hoping is that we would get to finish a story. And we did — we got to finish a story. So to keep going after that is anxiety-inducing. So I’m glad you liked it.

Image via Netflix

So once you had it in your head that “we’re going to do this,” how soon did you settle on the ideas of using Richter and using the French Revolution for a new Castlevania series?

ADAM: Sam and I were jabbing [Kevin] here and there, going, “Hey, we’d love to do a Richter/Maria thing.” That would be cool. Was that a part of it? Or was there already a discussion before that?

KEVIN: I think a lot of points were pointing towards Richter. Sam and Adam definitely were talking about Richter as a character. He was sort of front and center with a lot of things going on at the time. In some ways, he’s probably the most well-known Belmont character, but he’s also the youngest, I think, from an age standpoint. Trevor was a bit older. Also, the ability to time-jump so far into the future … the world’s changing. The world’s expanding. What’s the impact of the Belmont legacy? What became of the union of Trevor and Sypha, and their relationship with Alucard? It all just pointed to Richter as the character to lead with. That came first. The French Revolution concept came afterward.

SAM: It didn’t stop us from batting around exploring other areas. It’s just a hard discussion because you have to zero in on something eventually. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ve forgotten about Simon [Belmont] and everything. But we picked the space that we picked for now, and we’ll see where things go from there.

ADAM: Richter being the lead really helps a lot of things. Even just his palate kind of invokes Sypha and Trevor a little bit, and it easily incorporates Alucard again, too. That’s too much of a spoiler. I should back up on that.

[Laughs] We’re not to the spoiler questions yet!

ADAM: Sorry, I screwed up! I do think, too, with Clive and company going with the French Revolution as sort of the backdrop … it’s so funny that Rondo of Blood had 1792 as the era in which [the game] takes place, but the French Revolution is nowhere in Rondo of Blood. They did not use it.

SAM: Honestly, the dots just connected very sensibly due to the time period and the interest that brought, as well as how much of a departure from the original series that was. It just gave us a lot more new texture to play with.

ADAM: So shout-outs to Clive and the writing crew for that, for sure.

Image via Netflix

As you were putting Nocturne together, did you specifically identify things you wanted to do to make it feel consistent with the first Castlevania series, along with new things you didn’t get to do the first time but wanted to attempt this time? How did you address finding that balance?

KEVIN: We wanted it to feel a part of, and an expansion of, the original series. So, we’re looking at themes that we set up in the original series, looking at world view, looking at places that the vampires would play in society and how they would fit into that. We wanted it to feel like a part [of the overall Castlevania universe], but, 300 years later, the world’s changed. The Belmont lineage is much longer. Those are all places and things that allowed us to expand and build upon those things.

SAM: I was particularly excited about an opportunity to refresh the artistic side of it — the visual side of it. When you’re doing multiple seasons, even though we tried to level up the designs and the artwork and the animation, we obviously had to stick to the molds that we were working with. This was our first chance to do a refresh and polish the base foundation for the character-design style and everything in a way that we were wanting to do for a long time. Obviously, we wanted to invoke the original and make it feel like it’s in the same universe and everything. But we could polish little things, level up a few things with the designs and the animation, and do a proper refresh from that perspective. And then when it came to a new set of characters, there were obviously lots of fun things to do with getting a new team together. We got to do new action set pieces with new powers and abilities. I got Maria’s turtle, which really exciting for me! [Laughing] Lots of little things like that have been really fun to get to tinker with. Getting new mythology and everything to explore and learn about. Particularly with Annette — that’s been really fascinating to dive into and to learn about. So I think all of these different new things to explore has been a great refresh.

ADAM: Yeah, being able to explore Haitian history a bit and all the interesting mythological stuff that goes on there, too. Because Castlevania is well known for pulling monsters and horror stuff from a lot of different places. That’s kind of like the whole thing it does. And so now we have a new place to do it, and that’s pretty cool, too.

So both the original Castlevania series and now Nocturne feature some of the most thrilling action sequences that I’ve seen in animation. How much pressure is it on you to keep topping yourselves with these amazing fight sequences and combat sequences, which really are next level. Every time you do a great one, it must be that much pressure to make the next one better.

ADAM: Always! I didn’t know if we would ever top Season 2, Episode 7 [Trevor/Sypha/Alucard vs. Dracula], to be honest with you. When that happened, I was like, “How are we going beat this?” And then Season 4 happened, the Trevor-and-Death fight happened, and I was like, “Well, shit, how are we going top this now?” We’re absolutely worried about it, but it’s also just a challenge we accept.

SAM: Obviously, there’s a little bit of pressure of trying to do better and keep people excited. But even from a personal, creative perspective, it keeps me invested to find new ways to do things that are fun and exciting. I never like to just rehash the same stuff with the action. Not only is it something for the fans, but also, for me, it’s fun to try and find new ways to explore the abilities of the characters. I don’t necessarily want to use the same power over and over again. I want to find new, clever ways to explore that stuff. It’s exciting from a creative perspective, as well as for the fans. I also think that any of our animators who keep up with all the new anime and stuff coming out — they get motivated by that. They get excited by that. That, along with being able to grow our team and have a little bit more flexibility with doing those things without blowing ourselves up, has been a great opportunity to play around.

ADAM: I also find that a lot of anime animators, who we hire a lot of time to do some of this stuff — they’re a tenacious bunch. They always want to try to one up each other. And we do give them some level of freedom when they’re animating to do their own thing and spice stuff up. And I think that leads to a lot of really good creativity, just having the freedom to be able to do what they would like to do with the action, bearing all the important plot points, of course.

Image via Netflix

Okay, since Adam already went there earlier, we might as well dive into some spoilers. So, Alucard is back! You guys obviously knew you had this card to play in Nocturne. Fans knew that you had this card to play. When you were crafting this story, was the decision to bring him back an easy and immediate “yes”? Or was there careful deliberation involved in whether to introduce him in Nocturne’s first season? And once you knew you were bringing him back, how did you decide on the perfect way and time to do it?

KEVIN: We always intended to bring him back. I think we always intended to bring him back in the final episode of the season. How that moment ultimately played out — from envisioning the story into the final script and then into the final beautiful work that Sam and Adam did — those things always evolve. I feel like it just got better and better with each iteration. It was worth the wait for me. When people who I’ve talked to have seen it, they’re like, “Oh my god! It’s Alucard!”

ADAM: I absolutely love it. Before we even got the scripts, in my head, I had always pictured, yeah, he shouldn’t come up until the last episode. I was so happy when I read it in the script for the first time. It is a mega steam-valve effect, right? It’s like that WWE match where the guy is getting destroyed. Then, at the very end, off-camera, his buddy comes in and knocks the guy out, and it’s perfect.

SAM: [Mimics swinging a folding chair] I want Alucard with the chair!

ADAM: Yeah, exactly!

I’ve watched that last scene a bunch of times. There’s the close-up of the sword and then the close up of the hand on the hilt and then the full reveal as Alucard is hovering in the air. With the story-boarding, how important was it to get those images just perfect?

ADAM: Sam hand-wrung about that so much!

SAM: I’ve got to be honest, though. I think I story-boarded that in about two hours because that’s all the time that I had. [Laughs] The first storyboards were scribbles. The deadlines were encroaching. But I had ruminated on it so much before that — like for months — so I basically already had it in my head. I think we tweaked one or two things and that was it. It was pretty much right there. But the most important thing was making him as beautiful as possible in those shots. That was the really tricky bit. But we had more time to do that.

KEVIN: I tried to get Sam to add in [the vampire] Drolta’s blood splattering all over Richter’s white pants, but he would have none of it.

Image via Netflix

Alucard isn’t the only card the show can play long-term. Dracula is still alive at the end of the original series. Communicating with the dead doesn’t seem like something that should be impossible in this universe. So without getting into the specifics, and assuming Netflix greenlights a bunch more seasons like they should, what’s the plan for balancing that kind of fan service while still keeping the focus on these new characters and the story that you want to tell with Nocturne?

SAM: I want to give a shout-out. Since we’re talking spoilers, we’ve got Juste [Richter’s grandfather] in the show now, which is something that has been really exciting for me. We get to … oh, well, I don’t know how much I can talk about that …

ADAM: Yeah, keep your mouth shut, Sam!

SAM: That’s really exciting for me, period! [Laughing] But we’re starting to chip away at some of those things that are really fun as fans.

KEVIN: We talk about Dracula a lot. But I think Dracula is one of those things that you talk about a lot because, if you’re going to do it, you’ve got to do it right. His story ended in such a satisfying way. If we were going to go beyond that, it would need super thoughtful care. So, I don’t know. We’ll focus on Alucard and Juste, and continue to have Dracula chats.

SAM: We’re continuing to have those long-term discussions, and we’re cooking. That’s all I can say!

That’ll tie nicely into my final question. At the beginning of this interview, Kevin mentioned that you knew you had about a four-season storyline with the first show. Do you have an idea of how many seasons Nocturne will need to tell the story you want to tell?

ADAM: What do you think, Kevin?!

KEVIN: You always have a blueprint. You sort of have a short blueprint and a long group blueprint to where things can go. We’ll see where we end up. Hopefully, people will enjoy the first season as much as we enjoyed making it, and they’ll want to see more. We’ll see how far it goes.

Castlevania: Nocturne is now streaming on Netflix.