Today, Netflix announced that its popular western-anime series Castlevania is returning to the streaming platform on March 5th, 2020.
Netflix announced the show's release date through its official Twitter account, promising that there will be "more mystery, murder, mayhem, and vampires than ever." The tweet was accompanied by a release poster for Castlevania that features the main characters from the last season.
The poster also features one unknown character. There is already much speculation over who he is, but one popular theory suggests that he's Rinaldo Gandolfi, an alchemist first introduced in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, one of the more well-received Castlevania games. The plot of the next season has been kept under tight wraps, so for now fans will have to speculate.
Castlevania premiered in 2017 with four episodes and was successful enough that Neflix renewed it for a double-length second season. Netflix green-lit the show for a third season the day after the second season premiered, but fans have had to wait for two years to see it come to fruition. Fans can look forward to the third season, comprised of 10 episodes, starting March 5.
Fans of the show can also look forward to an upcoming Devil May Cry Netflix series, produced by the same team as Castlevania. These shows will exist in the same universe, known as the "bootleg multiverse." It's unclear how much overlap fans will see between the two shows, or if characters from Devil May Cry will be appearing in Castlevania.
Historically, Hollywood has struggled to adapt video games into movies. Castlevania has been one of the rare successful crossovers, appealing to both hardcore fans of the Castlevania video game series and to audiences with no prior knowledge of the games. Hopefully, this show marks the start of a new era in which video game adaptations are both successful at the box office and compelling works of art in their own right.
Castlevania season three will be available to stream on Netflix on March 4th, 2020.