Castlevania Trailer, Release Date Revealed

Well, this looks bloody good.

Netflix has released the first teaser trailer for its upcoming animated series Castlevania, and it promises plenty of monster-hunting, enemy-slaying, and (of course) bloodshed. 

Based off the Konami-developed fantasy adventure game series of the same name, Castlevania follows a vampire-averse family called the Belmonts, who have a long-standing rivalry against the biggest blood-sucker of them all: Dracula. The first glimpse at the show is sprinkled with nods to the well-loved side-scrolling games.

The teaser, which was shared in a tweet on the official Netflix US Twitter account, kicks things off on a nostalgic note, opening with a look at a Nintendo Entertainment System. Off screen, someone uses the old-school console to boot up Netflix. Some of the streaming service's original shows (like House of Cards, Narcos, Orange Is the New Black, and Stranger Things) are shown in pixelated graphics. 

A cursor hovers over Castlevania, and the short synopsis reads, "The last surviving member of a disgraced clan fights to save eastern Europe from Dracula, inspired by the classic NES game..." The unseen viewer hits play on the trailer-within-the-trailer, and what follows is a string of iconic Castlevania elements. We see the famed Belmont whip, gothic landscapes, waves of blood, sword fights, and massive explosions. A voice warns that there's a darkness upon the land, one only a "savior" can remedy. How? By killing Dracula.

The Castlevania trailer ends by flashing the new series logo and announcing its July 7 premiere. Check it out in the video above.

In the past, Castlevania producer Adi Shankar noted that the series would be "dark, satirical, and after a decade of propaganda, it will flip the vampire sub-genre on its head." The show is expected to be very violent and contain a healthy dose of adult themes. Shankar described it as "R-rated as f**k," and explained that the upcoming series is "very much Castlevania done in the vein of Game of Thrones" (via GameSpot). 

While we wait to see just how visceral things get in Castlevania when its released this summer, take a look at some of the best exclusive shows and movies on Netflix.