The Making of Castlevania: Nocturne Season Two

Castlevania: Nocturne returned to Netflix with a new, gripping second season full of lore and epic moments. Now joined by the legendary Alucard, Richter Belmont and his band of vampire hunters are in a desperate race against time to once and for all defeat the seemingly invincible Erzsebet Báthory, the Vampire Messiah–who is seeking the full power of the goddess Sekhmet so that she can plunge the world into endless darkness and terror. As always, Powerhouse Animation raised the bar for this new season of the beloved series–delivering a visual spectacle of gorgeous backgrounds, detailed character designs, and jaw-dropping action throughout. Series creator/showrunner Clive Bradley and directors/executive producers Adam and Sam Deats delved into characterization, key moments, and the overall production of Castlevania: Nocturne’s second season. “From a design perspective, our background style was altered to look more like the paintings found in that era [1700s France, at the height of the French Revolution], mostly to harken to something more French and romantic,” said Adam Deats, who also revealed that the team “altered the character line work style to give the show a slightly new look; this came at the cost of a slightly higher line density, but made our visuals a little more elegant. We also did heavy layout passes for most sequences to ensure character models were as accurate as possible. This required building an internal team for it to work, a rarity in US animation these days.”

Although Nocturne is well balanced in terms of character development, Alucard and Richter Belmont are the two anchors of the Castlevania franchise–their team-up felt like old times. Clive Bradley explained the importance of Alucard’s role in the momentous fight against evil and Richter’s growth as a hero: “Alucard is an important character in all sorts of ways. Since he’s still alive in 1792, it is inconceivable he wouldn’t join in the struggle. The question is just what he was doing during most of Season One, which is answered at the beginning of Season Two.” he added, “Richter is learning to be a hero. He starts pretty cocky at the beginning of Season One, comes unstuck when he’s confronted with Olrox, but then gets his magic back–but is still defeated. Now he has to rise to the occasion, which includes–significantly–learning to be part of a team.”

In Season Two, Drolta Tzuentes comes back to life as a night creature, taking the spotlight as the true main villain of the story. Sam Deats explained how the vampire-night creature hybrid came to be: “Katie [Silva] said that night creature Drolta needed to look, and I quote, ‘AWOOGA’. She needed to invoke her succubus form from Season One, but more monster-y, dark and evil–though still recognizable as Drolta. And at the same time, showcasing Drolta’s signature refined qualities, such as her claws looking like jewelry, and her wings folding over her clavicle to become a cape in a manner befitting a proper vampire; just a creepy flesh cape now. But again, most importantly, ‘AWOOGA’.”

On the other side, Annette went on a meaningful spiritual journey that eventually led her to become possessed by Sekhmet and find her way back to Richter. “Like Richter, Annette was orphaned as a kid. But she has a different spiritual background, and in her case it’s more to do with connecting with ancestors–meaning especially her mother and the god Ogun (who we learned at the beginning of Season One is an ancestor). This is the source of her power. And she also has to learn to be part of a team, a collective; they are stronger together,” Bradley shared. Annette’s Sekhmet form is without a doubt one of best character designs of the series, bringing a visually powerful entity while still keeping the character’s core features.

Maria Renard’s murder of her father is arguably the most powerful moment of Castlevania: Nocturne Season Two. Clive Bradley said that her dark summoning and the final act of killing the Abbot was inevitable: “Maria has suffered a lot. When we meet her she’s the idealistic one. But by the end of Season One she’s lost her mother, who’s now a vampire (and sacrificed herself for Maria’s sake), and not only discovered that the Abbot is her father but that he was ready to let Erzsebet kill her as a kind of human sacrifice. That’s a lot!” He added, “Maria is in a very dark place. She has the power to kill him … She has the power to summon creatures from the Otherworld. So of course she summons the greatest monster she can. And I don’t think there’s any hope of redemption for him.” In the end, with the help of Juste Belmont, Maria was able to purify her magic and bring the same powerful dragon that obliterated the Abbot to the ultimate battle against Erzsebet Báthory.

Since the beginning of Castlevania: Nocturne, Edouard has graced the audience with beautiful vocal performances (by the immensely talented Sydney James Harcourt). His beauty broke the curse of being a night creature and visually opened up through self acceptance in a symbolic moment as his hands finally revealed his face. “Edouard has been grappling with a feeling of shame for what he’s become. But in this moment, he lets that go; he unashamedly opens up to the world, sings a song that speaks to his heart, and turns the tide of the battle,” revealed Sam Deats.

The second season of Castlevania: Nocturne gifted the fans with one of the most epic battles to date in the franchise. In Grenadye Alaso, the seventh episode, every hero came together to take down the Vampire Messiah–the final confrontation showcasing the best of the best from Powerhouse Animation. Adam Deats confessed the episode was extremely complicated to execute since the team wanted to keep a high level of quality: “The key to making it all work was pre-planning cuts as best as we could, ensuring they were going into the right hands as early as possible, and then designating what would be left largely to post-production. We also allowed room for a handful of shots to come in very late on the animation end, ensuring that everything else was taken care of before then so our compositing team could handle a smaller load of more complicated shots on the backend without major hiccups. In the end, we ended up with one of the craziest, coolest moments the show has ever had: a family of Belmonts with a dragon at their side fighting a walking god. Clearly we all collectively lost our minds!” And so did the audience!

Castlevania: Nocturne has seemingly concluded almost every character arc (except maybe for Tera) in an incredibly satisfying way. It is undeniable that Powerhouse Animation and the rest of the Castlevania team have created yet another masterpiece, with a compelling story full of visual spectacles. Sink your teeth into Season Two on Netflix now!