With its fourth season, Netflix's original animated adaptation Castlevania concludes the saga of vampire hunter Trevor Belmont and his companions Sypha Belnades and Alucard. And with an entire army of vampires plotting to subjugate humanity to their bloodthirsty will, the story's stakes are the highest they have been before as the battle lines form for an epic showdown.
In an interview with CBR, series executive producer Kevin Kolde spoke about making sure the story of Trevor comes to a thrilling finish with Season 4, shared some of the production details behind the show and teased about the franchise's potential future following a different generation of vampire hunters.
CBR: The last time you and I spoke, you said you and your son got to bond over video games. Of all those games, what was the appeal of getting to work in the world of Castlevania?
Kevin Kolde: I think the lore is just great! The basic concept of this family, over generations, fighting against Dracula and vampires and evil is just great building blocks for a story. We would always play Castlevania and Resident Evil; these were the things that we enjoyed together, and, before my son, I grew up on Marvel comics and monster movies, so it was all in the wheelhouse of things I was interested to make.
You've got an embarrassment of riches with this voice cast. How has it been working with them and voice director Meredith Layne on recording their performances of these seasons?
You're right; it is an embarrassment of riches. I can't even believe how fortunate we have been to get the amazing cast that we've got. Meredith is awesome in casting as well as our voice directing. It's funny because as you start to build the cast and get people in, you go, "Wow, we actually got that person!" and then we start to think about new characters and want to ask new people to play these characters, and they say yes and you go "Wow, they said yes!" [Laughs]
It just kind of keeps building from there, and you get the list and wonder did this happen. There's not a clunker in the bunch, it's amazing, amazing voice talent and it's always a thrill to be in the studio, whether they're there or remote, for the great performances that they give to us. There have been precious few instances where we've had multiple of them together in the studio at the same time, which has always been great; it's an unbelievable cast.
You've already got a big cast, and you're adding new characters in Season 4, with nobody feeling like they have a B-plot. So how is it tying this all together and paying it all off with this season?
Yeah, credit to [series creator Warren Ellis]. We were fortunate enough, looking at the beginning of Season 3 and thinking about concluding with Season 4, even though we didn't know at the time that there would be a fourth season. Being able to plot out those elements from the beginning certainly helps, and tracking everything and tying everything together is a blessing in terms of knowing how things are going to end [instead] of finding out you're canceled or something. [Laughs] Warren did an amazing job: He set up the pieces in Season 3, and he landed them expertly in Season 4.
I'm looking at my stack of Castlevania games and I love how many Easter eggs you've packed in all four seasons. How has it been putting those in, and do you have a personal favorite?
I am only responsible for one Easter egg. The majority of Easter eggs are deposited throughout the series at Powerhouse [Animation]. [Directors] Sam and Adam Deats and the team there are all huge, huge Castlevania video game fans: They've played all the games, are deep in the lore and do their research. I'm sure there are Easter eggs in the show that I'm not even aware of, and I have a list! [Laughs] It's great and fun, things that don't necessarily impact the story but for people playing the games and fans of the game series. They really appreciate those little touches and finding them. But I'm only responsible for one, and it's not great: A bone dragon king skeleton hanging in the Belmont Hall, that's from me. All the other ones are from other folks.
You guys have effectively broken the video game curse, with some of the highest acclaim for any video game adaptation. How has the fan response been, and how has that informed production?
The fan response has been great! It was fun because you start it out, you have a plan, you think you know what you're doing and that you have something good, but you just don't know. I remember when the first season came out on [Netflix] and just watching the response in real-time on Twitter and breathing a big sigh of relief. [Laughs] That sort of invigorates you, in the response that it continues to get over four seasons. It inspires me and Sam and Adam to do more and to do better. In Season 4, there's certainly some of the most spectacular animation that we've ever had in the series. I know everyone wants to top themselves at this point with the fourth season. We ended in a great place with Season 3; we've got to top it for Season 4. It's a labor of love, and the fans have been great, and we feed off of that; it's a mutual thing that inspires us to do better.
Something I've always wondered is, as much as I enjoy the first season, it's only four episodes. What was behind that truncated episode order?
A couple of things: The first season is really built and based upon the original script, which was intended to be a direct-to-video movie back in the mid-2000s; there's a bit of that. I think a lot of it is just that everyone saw this as a risk. [Laughs] At the time, Netflix was just sort of getting into original shows at a time when original animation wasn't commonplace, and I think it was a risk. [Executive producers] Larry Tanz and Ted Biaselli and [Netflix Vice President of Anime Content] John Derderian, they're supporting the show, but they just didn't know, so they were like, "Do four episodes, and we'll see what happens." I think it was just an abundance of caution.
I know there's not much you can talk about but, with reports of a planned spinoff from the main series, how do you envision the future of Castlevania?
We're not talking about what I would specifically call a spinoff, because we're taking from the characters or spinning directly from this series. We're looking at another series in the Castlevania universe. I can't tell you any real specifics at this point; we can certainly talk about it once those details are solidified; right now, it's really about finishing this [series] up. As you know, there's a lot of great games, great storylines, great characters in the Castlevania world going back, prior to Trevor's story, and going on into the future with Soma Cruz and things like that. There's plenty there to play with -- I'm not going to tell you where we're going to play -- but those details will come out soon enough. [Laughs] I think Castlevania fans will be thrilled.
Castlevania stars Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont, Alejandra Reynoso as Sypha Belnades, James Callis as Alucard, Theo James as Hector, Adetokumboh M'Cormack as Isaac, Jaime Murray as Carmilla, Jessica Brown Findlay as Lenore, Bill Nighy as St. Germain, Jason Isaacs as The Judge and Rila Fukushima as Sumi. Season 4 arrives on Netflix May 13.