Castlevania Season 3 - What We Know So Far

Like the tagline says: evil never stays buried. Netflix's hit animated video game adaptation series Castlevania is kicking open that rusty sepulcher for a third season, and all your favorite evil, toothy friends are back along with a bunch of new faces. Dracula may be dead, but it seems like the fights are only going to get bigger, flashier, and more desperate as humanity teeters on the edge of being conquered by the vampire world — and Hell itself.

With the three protagonists having taken off to pursue their own personal objectives, and the powers of evil seemingly further bent on destruction, how will the human world be saved? How is Alucard (James Callis) coping with the loss of both parents? Are the Speakers, along with Sypha (Alejandra Reynoso) and Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage) restoring the good name of monster hunters everywhere? Our only guarantee going in will be the promise of all the gratuitous demon-slaying we could ever want. The junior season of Castlevania is coming soon, and we've pulled together everything there is to know before its shadow looms over Netflix again.

Despite the formal announcement of all the new cast members and their character names, the trailer for Castlevania season 3 keeps those new additions pretty close to the vest, and mostly focuses on those characters we already know. It appears Issac will be the driving force of the season's narrative, since much of the trailer is focused on dialogue between him and other characters. 

The footage sticks to showing us the living and living-dead folks we've come to adore — save for a curious shot of newcomer Lenore (Jessica Brown Findlay, Downton Abbey) keeping a human on a leash and in a cage like a pet. The spot is pretty cagey about how all the characters' storylines will tie together, though, instead playing up all of the third season's shiny new action sequences. For example, there's very little Alucard in the trailer at all, which comes as a surprise. You'd think that with two armies of Hell on the march, fate would find a way to bring the main cast back together — but if that will indeed be the case, the spot isn't tipping its hand as to how.

Netflix tends to test its passionate audiences with long waits between seasons (for Exhibit A, we give you BoJack Horseman), and the streamer typically drops release info well after production has completed, and not long before new seasons of its original series are due to premiere. Castlevania Season 2 aired in October of 2018, so it's been a long wait for new episodes — but that is somewhat to be expected of a series that is traditionally animated (as opposed to being rendered with CGI). 

The good news, though, is that all ten episodes of Castlevania season 3 will be available immediately. That's two more episodes than last season, by the way, which likely drew out the production time — but at least vampire-killer fans can have an extra hour of story line, as a treat. The big official trailer for the series confirmed that the new season will drop on March 5, 2020.

Netflix's official synopsis for the third season of Castlevania is vague; we know that Belmont and Sypha will find themselves dealing with the  mysterious secrets of their new village, Alucard will gain a couple of new disciples, and Isaac will be on a solo quest to find Hector. You'll notice that these tidbits just barely address the many plot threads left dangling at the end of season 2.

That season ended with a power vacuum. Dracula was destroyed by his son, Alucard, with assistance from Trevor Belmont and Sypha. Carmilla was still just as ambitious as ever to rule and enslave humans for food; Issac, now given an extra reason to hate everyone and everything with his great benefactor Dracula dead, has decided if no one else is gonna do it, he'll pull himself up by the genocidal bootstraps to get business done, and maybe even rescue Hector from the clutches of Camilla. Sypha and Trevor are, well, apparently road-tripping like they live in a '90s movie, killing monsters for fun and profit. The two bigger questions are: what is Alucard up to, and what will all ten of the new characters bring to the table? We can't wait to sink our fangs in and find out.

Those ten characters bring yet more amazing talent to the proceedings. In addition to the aforementioned Findlay as Lenore, the third season will add Rila Fukushima as Sumi; the eternally nefarious Jason Issacs as The Judge; Yasmine al Massri as Morana; Ivana Milicevic as Striga; Navid Negahban as Sala; Bill Nighy as Saint Germain; Lance Reddick as the Captain; Barbara Steele as Miranda; and Toru Uchikado as Taka. It should be one bloody great animated party come March 5.