James Wan Reveals He Wanted Nicolas Cage as Dracula for Castlevania Movie

Earlier this year, Nicolas Cage brought the iconic Dracula to life for Renfield, making for a scene-stealing performance in the film about the character’s notorious sidekick, but The Conjuring and Aquaman director James Wan recently confirmed that he had previously attempted to enlist Cage to play the villain in an adaptation of the video game Castlevania. With that film having been mired in complications when it came to being brought to life, it’s unclear how substantial these talks were, and even though that project ultimately fizzled out, knowing that we eventually got to see one version of Cage’s Dracula will come as a relief to fans.

“Renfield is terrific, so much fun! The 2 Nics are fantastic!” Wan shared on his Instagram. “Cage and I spoke many years ago about playing Dracula in my (defunct) Castlevania, so it’s great to see he finally got the chance to play the Prince of Darkness.”

The early ’90s saw underwhelming attempts at adapting video games, such as projects like Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, and Double Dragon, all of which were based on games with little-to-no mythology behind them. In the early 2000s, Hollywood instead attempted to adapt RPGs with more substantial narratives, with films like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Resident Evil both being hits with audiences.

The success of these films saw adaptations like Doom, Alone in the Dark, House of the Dead, DOA: Dead or Alive, and other projects that largely fell flat. It would seem as though it was the initial successes earlier in the decade that saw Castlevania become the focus of development, with those failures resulting in delays before the project was scrapped entirely. 

The Castlevania film initially had Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson involved, likely because he had established his talents at adapting a horror-themed project, but with James Wan earning a hit with Saw, he stepped into the fold. At the time, fans would understandably wonder how his filmmaking style would be applied to the beloved mythology of Castlevania, though subsequent years saw Wan developing not only his own mythologies with projects like Insidious, but he also found hits with big-budget franchises in Aquaman and Furious 7.

Castlevania was recently adapted into an animated series for Netflix, with the franchise’s devout following likely to see it become the source of a live-action adaptation at some point in the future.

Would you have liked to have seen Cage play Dracula? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!