In a new fan trailer, Netflix's Castlevania producer Adi Shankar has reimagined Nintendo's family-friendly world of Pokemon as grim, gritty and violent.
As part of the filmmaker's self-proclaimed "Bootleg Universe," the animated trailer finds an older Ash Ketchum and Professor Oak visiting the grave of Ash's beloved Pikachu, who was killed during the retired Pokemon Trainer's quest to become the very best. Realizing that their society has pitted Pokemon against each other in increasingly violent battles for humanity's entertainment, Ash vows to bring it all down.
Re-envisioning the franchise's signature Pokemon battles as violent and realistic, the trailer has Ash lead a revolution against those running the Pokemon tournaments. Many of the series' iconic Pocket Monsters appear before crime lord and businessman Giovanni calls in Team Rocket to stop Ash once and for all.
In addition to serving as an executive producer on the anime adaptation of Castlevania, Shankar is currently developing animated adaptations of the popular video games Devil May Cry for Netflix and Hyper Light Drifter to shop to various networks and platforms.
Castlevania Season 2 on Netflix stars Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont, Alejandra Reynoso as Sypha Belnades, James Callis as Alucard, and Graham McTavish as Dracula. Adi Shankar returns as showrunner with the adaptation written by Warren Ellis. The series has been renewed for a third season.