Late in 2005, Crystal Sky Pictures acquired the rights to make a film version of Castlevania and hired Paul W.S. Anderson to write and direct. Changes in studios and the director - as well as the 2007 writer's strike - eventually ended up getting the project shelved in 2009. James Wan later expressed interest in the film, and Anderson never walked away from it, but it remained undone. Until an animated miniseries based on the game was announced as a new series on Netflix earlier this year.
Related: Netflix’s Castlevania International Poster
The show's producer Adi Shankar posted a video on his YouTube channel featuring him and actor Graham McTavish - who is playing Dracula - announcing the rest of the main cast for the upcoming series.
Starting off the list of actors is Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont. Next is James Callis as Alucard, Alejandra Reynoso as Sypha, Emily Swallow as Lisa Tepes, Matt Frewer as The Bishop, and Tony Amendola as The Elder. The video is a playful one, with the two men geeking out a little over Frewer having starred on Max Headroom and little video game graphics popping up throughout.
McTavish referenced knowing both Armitage and Swallow in the video. He's actually worked with both before - he and Swallow both voiced characters for the video game The Order: 1886 and of course, both he and Armitage worked closely together on The Hobbit movies.
Armitage and McTavish are also both known for playing characters adapted from previous works. Aside from The Hobbit trilogy, McTavish appeared on the first two seasons of Outlander. And Armitage played characters in the TV show adaptations Robin Hood and Hannibal.
During the video, McTavish and Shankar also mention Callis' previous role as Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica. More recently he has been seen reprising his role as Tom in Bridget Jones's Baby. Meanwhile, Amendola actually has quite a bit of history with video games, he's voiced characters for games in multiple popular series - including World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and Fallout.
Rounding out the cast is Reynoso, whose career has been almost entirely in voiceover, primarily playing Flora in the Nickelodeon series Winx Club.
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The first season of Castlevania will be released on Netflix July 7, 2017.
Source: Adi Shankar