Interview: Executive Producer Adi Shankar on the Intense Animation & Bold Storytelling of Netflix’s CASTLEVANIA Series

This past summer was a memorable one for fans of Konami's video game franchise Castlevania. In addition to the release of a new four-episode animated series adaptation of the video games on Netflix, the streaming service also renewed the series for an eight-episode second season, and viewers of the show were treated to a story that took an R-rated approach to violence and a bold path with its storytelling. One of the creative forces behind the new series is Adi Shankar (executive producer of films such as Dredd and The Grey) and I had the opportunity to talk with the filmmaker about collaborating with Sam Deats and Warren Ellis, the freedom of working with Netflix, and much more.

Thanks so much for taking some time to talk with me and congratulations on Castlevania. I wrapped up watching the first season and I absolutely loved it.

Adi Shankar: Amazing, amazing. That's good to know. A lot better than if you're like, "Oh man, I really didn't get that at all or like it."

Unfortunately, I never played the video games. I had an NES, I had a PlayStation One, but for some reason I missed out on Simon's Quest and Symphony of Night and all that stuff. Coming into this as a totally new fan, I immediately dug the story, and was immersed in the world and actually felt like I was experiencing a video game. I thought that was a really cool vibe just from watching the first season.

Adi Shankar: Yeah. I guess my big takeaway now is it just goes to show what happens when fans are allowed to make a love letter officially. You saw what happens when you make a love letter unofficially with Power Rangers, Dirty Laundry [Shankar's Punisher short film]. Really, Netflix just deserves so much credit for allowing us to operate with no handcuffs and no restrictions.

Yeah, it seems like you guys were able to do exactly what you set out to do. It's one of those projects that seems like the vision came to full fruition and it's so cool, too, that you guys got Warren Ellis to write the script. For him to write the entire first season, he's such an amazing writer, and usually we see his stuff adapted for film, but to see him write something for the screen was really cool.

Adi Shankar: You know, I've watched a lot of interviews over the years with different actors, but the one actor whose interviews really stand out to me as just genuine, real, and authentic, where you can actually draw some real information from, is George Clooney. He's constantly asked, "You're able to basically pick any role you want, you can be in any movie you want. Every studio wants to work with you. How do you decide what you want to do? How do you pick roles?" His response is great, it's always, "I like to work with directors and work on projects that are made with a point of view." That's a really nice way of saying, "I don't want to just work on commercial stuff for the sake of making commerce." He wants to be a part of projects that actually say something, and that's why so many of his movies are so memorable. There's definitely an element of that here—not just an element, it was clearly made with a point of view on every level, at every stage of the process.

Yeah, even the animation stands out. You are doing this 2D animation, which is really awesome to see nowadays, and it just has this vibrancy to it. Even though it's 2D, it still really pops, and I love that you bring an anime style to it. Was that something you really wanted to do when you came on board this project, to present it in that artistic style?

Adi Shankar: Yeah, I grew up in Southeast Asia. I effectively immigrated here full-time when I was sixteen, but all these formative years involved me absorbing American culture as it was being presented in Southeast Asia, but really being so close to Japan, I was 50% influenced by Japanese culture as well. The thing about growing up in Hong Kong, for instance, at night, you have adult animation. They would play Akira, Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D, on TV. It would be on TV. It wasn't this, "Hey we're gonna go to this really obscure store in the middle of nowhere to find this stuff." It was on TV. It was perfectly normal to me. When I immigrated to America, it just felt like something was missing here.

That R-rated animation was kind of missing. You weren't seeing that on TV as much over here in the States.

Adi Shankar: I mean [not] at all. You can credit Matt [Stone] and Trey [Parker] with South Park and Seth MacFarlane with Family Guy and obviously BoJack Horseman, with normalizing animated comedy for adults. That's one genre. That's literally one genre.

I'm really impressed with the work that [animator and director] Sam Deats did on this. Can you talk about finding him and what made him the right choice to direct these episodes?

Adi Shankar: He's a fan. He's literally a Castlevania fan, and he's a student of animation from all over the world. Really, you know, those two elements made him literally perfect. I could just do an interview of why Sam's amazing. You know who else is amazing, Kevin. [Executive producer] Kevin Kolde. Literally, he's a legend in this space. The project wouldn't exist without either of them.

Will both Sam and Warren be back to direct and write season two? I know you have the exciting double amount of episodes coming up.

Adi Shankar: Yeah, absolutely. We're a team at this point. I'd love to keep working with both of them and Kevin on a bunch of things. These are just talented people.

Also, you have the Assassin's Creed animated series that was announced recently, which is really exciting. Can we expect something similar in terms of the animation style of Castlevania, or is it going to be a different style?

Adi Shankar: So, I can't get into any of that. The only thing I can say, is if you look through my body of work, you will find a lot of consistency. I have no intention in deviating from that consistency in the near future.

Richard Armitage, who voices Trevor Belmont, his voice acting and what you put Trevor through in Castlevania reminds me of John McClane from Die Hard, where he's a hero that can do a lot of cool stuff, but he also gets beat up a lot, and he's not immune to violence. I thought that was really cool that you guys put him through the grinder.

Adi Shankar: That kind of narrative structure only works with an antihero. At this point, I don't think I even know how to tell a story without an antihero.

There was an exciting announcement that Brigitte Nielsen joined Adi Shankar's Gods and Secrets, which I know has been in the works for a while. Has that been exciting for you to kind of get that moving forward again?

Adi Shankar: It has, it has. It is a project I'm very excited about, very close to, obviously, because my name's in the title, also, which is gonna be interesting when it comes out. You know, it's interesting with all these projects, because there's really no blueprint for any of them. Even going back to all the bootleg shorts, there was never really a blueprint for anything, so you literally have no idea how people are gonna respond to it. A lot of times when I'm asked questions about projects that are a little further out, I have nothing to compare it to, and I have no basis to even have a dialogue about it.

Yeah, there is nothing to measure it against.

Adi Shankar: Right. It'll be interesting to see the reaction to Adi Shankar's Gods and Secrets. Also, Will Yun Lee joined the cast as well. He's an amazing actor. He was in Power Rangers [the 2015 short film]. He played the North Korean general.

Brigitte and I have known each other for many years. In 2012, I started trying to put together this movie that the internet started calling The Female Expendables. We actually had a meeting about that project, and we just stayed in touch over the years.

Also, Derek Mears has joined the cast. I love him. He is the nicest person I have met in Los Angeles.