The Castlevania anime became one of Netflix’s most unexpected hits in recent years and with that success came a lucrative deal for a brand new spinoff that producer Adi Shankar is disputing due to his exclusion from the project.
This isn’t the first public controversy Castlevania has dealt with. In 2020, notorious screenwriter Warren Ellis was fired from the show due to several allegations of sexual misconduct against him, however, at the time Ellis had actually finished working on the script for Castlevania'sfinal season. Due to overwhelmingly positive reception, Castlevania'screative team got the green light to produce another satisfying adaptation based on Richter Belmont’s adventures in Rondo of Blood.
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It would appear though as if Shankar was not being considered at all for this new project as The Hollywood Reporter recently surfaced a filed lawsuit on behalf of Shankar against the show’s smaller production companies and fellow producer Kevin Kolde. The claim filed at the Los Angeles Superior Court argues that after Ellis’ firing, Kolde “concocted a scheme to expand the Castlevania universe while simultaneously cutting Shankar out of the Agreement the parties made — and boosting Kolde’s profits,” although no precise copy of the court documents has been made publicly available at the moment.
The biggest point of contention in the dispute appears to be Shankar’s account of a verbal agreement between the parties that would have ensured Shankar would take part in any subsequent Castlevania projects creatively and he would receive a 33% compensation stake for his work. Shankar is no stranger to Hollywood dealings, as he’s a credited producer in movies like Dredd and A Walk Among the Tombstones, in addition to being part of the team that rescued Castlevania from development hell.
Considering Shankar is also booked as a producer for future Netflix video game adaptations like Assassin’s Creed and Devil May Cry, it’s quite strange for his claim to be relying on a supposedly verbal agreement that can be difficult to prove in court. Nonetheless, the case is unlikely to hinder development for the Rondo of Blood adaptation that will follow Trevor Belmont’s descendant during the age of the French revolution.
Despite Konami relegating Castlevania games to the Apple Arcade to this day, Netflix’s animated series revived interest in the franchise. So the fact that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'snewcomer Richter Belmont and Maria Renard get to star in their own spinoff could boost that interest even further given Rondo of Blood is widely considered one of the best games in the series.
Castlevania is now available on Netflix.
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Source: The Hollywood Reporter
