After being away for nearly a year and a half, season three of Castlevania is coming to Netflix in March. The last season of the hit TV adaptation of the vampire-killing game series had a few big revelations and neatly tied up several plot threads, but there's still many places the upcoming season could take the story when new episodes finally drop.
Netflix's Castlevania, written by Warren Ellis, debuted to critical and viewer acclaim in 2017 and was quickly renewed for a second season, which aired in October of the following year. Mixing and matching together story elements from Konami's video game franchise of the same name, Castlevania has won its place as one of the streaming giant's most viewed animated originals. It follows the tangled webbed of stories of disgraced monster hunter Trevor Belmont, cunning sorceress Sypha Belnades, and the half-human, half-vampire, all-conflicted Alucard, the estranged son of Dracula. Season two ended off with a tearful Alucard inheriting his father's castle after successfully slaying him, a potential romance budding between Trevor and Sypha, and a voracious power vacuum left in Dracula's wake that threatened the finale's shortly established peace.
Confirming that Castlevania season three is officially happening, Netflix released an official poster today on Twitter, along with a release date of March 5. The tweet promises that the series has "more mystery, murder, mayhem, and vampires than ever" in store for the next season, and the poster has several big hints about what could be coming next. Surrounding Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard are Devil Forgemasters Hector and Isaac, the power-hungry vampire mistress Carmilla, and two completely fresh faces. This reveal was hinted at in a few tweets by Castlevania's Powerhouse Animation Studios back in January, but an official announcement from Netflix itself is as reassuring as it is exciting.
There's quite a lot more to the poster than meets first glance, especially in the context of Castlevania season two's many turmoils and twists. Hector, having been forced into Carmilla's service following his unintentional betrayal of Dracula, is naked and in chains at the bottom-left, and a mysterious woman with red hair seems to somehow be responsible for him. Meanwhile, Isaac still wears the cloak he donned after Dracula mercifully teleported him to his original desert home, where he presumably began forging an army with which he'll try to avenge his master. In the background, a devious-looking man dressed in noble garb grips a luminous stone vaguely reminiscent of the Philosopher's Stone item from Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. With writing as robust and subversive as Castlevania's, there's really no telling who the two new characters are or if they affiliate with humans, vampires, or neither.
To put it lightly, this announcement has left waiting viewers with a lot to chew over as March 5th quickly approaches. If there really will somehow be even more mystery, mayhem, murder, and vampires than in the previous two seasons, then there's probably nothing that will prepare fans for what Castlevania season three has queued up for them, and they'd probably not have it any other way.
Source: Twitter