‘Castlevania’ Producer Adi Shankar Making ‘Devil May Cry’ TV Show Set In Same Multiverse
Last month, producerAdi Shankar(The Grey, Dredd, Lone Survivor)teasedthe following message: “I can confirm that I’m working with an iconic Japanese gaming company to adapt one of their iconic video game series into a series.” One of the trades reported that he was hyping aThe Legend of ZeldaTV show, but that was incorrect.
Instead, Shankar revealed today that he’s working on aDevil May CryTV show based on the popular video game and that it will “be a part of a multiverse with” his Netflix animated seriesCastlevania.
Open for business.pic.twitter.com/TCT5JH9fXz
— Adi Shankar (@adishankarbrand)July 20, 2025
“I’ve acquired [the rights toDevil May Cry] myself so that the jabronis in Hollywood can’t fuck this one up, too,” Shankar toldIGN. “Devil May Crywill joinCastlevaniain what we’re now calling the Bootleg Multiverse. Let the speculation begin. You can read into that all you want.”
Over the past several years, Shankar has produced a number of what he calls “bootleg” productions: essentially fan films that deal with familiar characters. He started withThe Punisher: Dirty Laundry, which broughtThomas Janeback to reprise the title role, and followed that up withVenom: Truth in Journalismand an animated Judge Dredd short calledSuperfiend. Most recently, he earned a ton of buzz with the hyper-violent short filmPower/Rangersbased on the kids' show.
At this point, we’re left with more questions than answers. IGN confirms that theDevil May Cryseries will be animated, but Shankar went out of his way to specify that he’s acquired the rights himself – does that mean this will end up on a different platform than Netflix, whereCastlevaniajust dropped its second season andhas season 3 lined up? Is that why it’s being referred to as a “multiverse” instead of a more explicitly connected shared universe – because it will exist on a different platform?
Devil May Crydebuted in 2001 and spawned multiple sequels, withDevil May Cry 5set to drop in March 2019. The series follows a demon-hunting mercenary/vigilante named Dante who’s out to enact revenge on demons for killing his mother and corrupting his brother Vergil (Dante, Vergil, and other character names in the game series are shout-outs to Dante Aligheri’s Divine Comedy, which sent its protagonist through various levels of hell).Castlevaniais an anime-inspired series based on a pair of the later games in the franchise, following the adventures of Trevor Belmont, a monster-slaying warrior who protects the people of Wallachia from Dracula (yes, THE Dracula).
How will the two properties cross over? We have no idea! Shankar is a showman in the classical Hollywood tradition, and he knows how to get a fan base riled up and excited. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about how exactly this “bootleg multiverse” will work, but in the meantime, Shankar has the fandom community right where he wants us: speculating wildly based on almost no information whatsoever.
