While other services have found success adapting beloved video games, such as Prime Video with Fallout and Peacock with Twisted Metal, Netflix remains the most active in this space. The streamer has especially thrived with its animated shows, from the original Castlevania, which began in 2017, to its follow-up, Castlevania Nocturne, the award-winning League of Legends series Arcane, and the more recent Splinter Cell: Deathwatch. Last year saw Adi Shankar, who helped produce both Belmont-centric adventures, return to the platform in smokin’ sexy style with his long-awaited passion project, Devil May Cry, based on the Capcom series of action games. Not only was it met with widespread critical acclaim, but it also drew in an impressive 5.3 million views over its first four days.
Season 1 introduced viewers to Dante (Johnny Yong Bosch), the iconic white-haired, wisecracking demon hunter-for-hire, as he finds himself in the middle of an epic battle between good and evil. The fate of the world ends up on his shoulders when a sinister terrorist called the White Rabbit (Hoon Lee) threatens to open a gateway to Hell and unleash its inhabitants upon the world. After stopping the threat and being taken into custody by his DARKCOM pal Lady (Scout Taylor-Compton), though, he’s now about to awaken for Season 2, complete with a few upgrades. Ahead of the premiere, a new trailer has been released that shows Dante returning to the fight to find his missing brother, Vergil (Robbie Daymond), and face down the demons of his past.
The footage opens with Dante getting rearmed with his beloved pistols, Ebony and Ivory, and a new coat. Now looking more than ever like his game counterpart, he’s been unfrozen from DARKCOM’s custody to deal with a developing situation. Vergil is back, and seeing him brings all his feelings of family bubbling back to the surface. However, after being left behind in the fire Dante believed claimed him, Vergil is working for the Prince of Darkness himself, Mundus, setting the mirroring forces on a collision course. A mysterious man reveals that they both “have roles to play in the coming reformation,” some event that again threatens the fate of the world. By the end of this rip-roaring, death-defying journey, the brothers may find themselves on the same side to oppose a more dire threat to everything they love.
‘Devil May Cry’ Season 2 Will Take Big Swings Under Adi Shankar
Studio Mir is once again providing the animation, and their work is on full display in the teaser, between the tense clashes between Dante and Vergil and large-scale battles against otherworldly beasts wreaking havoc on Earth. Though Shankar‘s Devil May Cry takes place in a separate universe from the game franchise, Season 2 is already showing more elements lifted directly from Capcom‘s work and a greater focus on that relationship between the half-demon siblings. The showrunner teased some bigger swings, too, after a first run that ended with the U.S. military literally invading Hell. Speaking to Collider for our Exclusive Spring Preview series back in February, he promised that his series wouldn’t rely on familiarity but lean into unpredictability, with its newfound focus on rivalry, family, and the little twists that can send two very similar, once-tight-knit forces down very different paths.
“I’m allergic to formula. I dislike when successful shows turn into comfort food. Devil May Cry won’t be TV that loops. My mission for Season 2 was to capture the feeling of a 2000s film franchise entry where the audience can’t predict the next turn.”
Devil May Cry returns for Season 2 on May 12. Check out the new trailer in the player above.
via Collider