Castlevania has become one of the best original series housed at Netflix, and that isn’t by luck. The show was in the works for years before Netflix signed on to host it, and much of its success falls to executive producer Kevin Kolde. The creator, who has worked on shows like Adventure Time and Bravest Warriors, set out to do something special with Castlevania. But way before Netflix got on board, the anime imagined a much gorier landscape.
Recently, Kolde clued in fans to that original vision when the produce spoke with Animation World Network. It was there he spoke about Castlevania‘s earliest days, and Kolde admitted the plan was to turn the project into a straight-to-video film.
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As you can imagine, that pitch fizzled as the years went by. The entertainment industry quickly traded straight-to-video films in for streaming ventures, and Netflix was at the top of that food chain. The site still reigns supreme despite challenges from sites like Disney+, and Kolde says Netflix was equal parts excited and hesitant to okay Castlevania.
“They went for it pretty quickly, but I think it was still a difficult decision for them because they were dealing with a lot of animation that was more kid-focused and this was very much adult animation,” the producer shared. “But we were lucky enough to work with people like Larry Tanz and Sam and Adam Deats at Frederator Studios, who decided this show was still worth doing.”
Of course, some changes did have to be made to the show. Netflix is pretty open to content but shows like 13 Reasons Why proves how much the platform wants to avoid controversy. That is why some of the darkest scenes planned for Castlevania were cut out. And if you want to know what those scenes held, well – you asked for it.
“In the early episodes, we have scenes where people are just getting torn to pieces by these monsters and there’s even a child on the ground with their guts spilling out. There’s also a scene later on where a monster is carrying a baby in its jaws,” Kolde shared.
Clearly, that is a yikes, but that brutality does exist in the World of Castlevania. Netflix may not want to show scenes that graphic, but the anime wasn’t sanitized all that much. It seems the brutal vision for Castlevania still came true… and it didn’t have to even go straight to video to make it happen!
Are you happy with the direction Castlevania ended up taking? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!
