Castlevania: Nocturne returns with its second season on Netflix, sparking online discussions about video game references, animation enthusiasts sharing their favorite action clips, and Alucard babygirl posts in its wake. However, a new season also brings the resurgence of pearl-clutching and Gamergate-adjacent rhetoric concerning Black representation, which should be celebrated in the Powerhouse Animation series instead.
To address and preempt criticisms from those who deride the inclusion of Black characters in the video game series as “woke,” we talked to Black Castlevania: Nocturne writers Testament and Zodwa Nyoni, and executive producer Clive Bradley, about how they enriched Konami’s fantastical source material setting with real-world events and the Black experience.
This interview has been edited for length.
Isaiah Colbert, io9: Castlevania is a series rich with fully realized characters, especially when it comes to its Black characters. We’ve seen this in the past with characters like Isaac, and now we’re witnessing it again with Annette, Edouard, and Drolta.
While fans have come to expect Eurocentric historical events like the French Revolution to coincide with a fantastical story like Nocturne‘s, the show surprised folks the world over by focusing on Black revolutions as well. What inspired the idea of adding that element to Nocturne‘s story?
Clive Bradley: Once we had the setting of the French Revolution (which came from Rondo of Blood being set in 1792), it was vital, I think, to find some way to include the Haitian Revolution. The most radical thing the French Revolution did was abolish slavery, but the fundamental reason for that was that enslaved people were abolishing it themselves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (later Haiti). Of course, then, you need characters to dramatize this. And having a relationship between one of these characters and the “hero” of the game, Richter, seemed an obvious choice.
Of course, the next step was to build a writers’ room with writers who could help flesh this out. I’m so honored to have found Testament, Zodwa, and Temi [Oh], who did such a marvelous job.
Nyoni: What I found interesting was that conversation about where the line between fiction and reality is. I’m a history buff. I love politics and research, so I loved the idea of leaning in on the work that I already do as an academic or as a writer in theater or screen, but also meeting the world of Castlevania. Myself, Temi, and Testament came on board to realize this vision that allowed us to not only bring ourselves and our cultural backgrounds to it [but also] open up the space for more research.
Testament: What I like about working with Zodwa and Temi is that certain go-to cliches have been used in portrayals of global majority heritage characters, and we wanted to be real. We’ve seen those hairstyles a bunch, and they’re not historically accurate. We can be fresh with that and keep it in history. The Haitian Revolution, again, [had] famous women who were generals, leaders, and warriors like Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière, Victoria Montou (aka Toya), and Suzanne Bélair. It’s just history.
Ten years ago, we weren’t talking about it until people went back and gone, “Oh yeah, Cécile Fatiman was doing spells in the woods and then going and fighting plantation owners.” That’s a real true-life story; she wasn’t the only woman. A bunch of women were in leadership doing that, so we’re just drawing on real things, putting it into our fantasy, and hopefully continuing that tradition of mashing together historical periods, dope animation, and representing it.
io9: What was your guiding principle for enriching Nocturne‘s Black characters with mythological elements tied to African culture and real-life events like chattel slavery and the Haitian Revolution?
Nyoni: We were fortunate throughout the process to work with a Haitian American scholar called Cécile Accilien. Much of her work revolved around Francophone studies, so she gave us cultural and historical context. That specificity was significant for us to think about how we accurately represented the Haitian Revolution and found space for creative license. We spent so much time cultivating and finding points of accuracy and even conversing with Netflix about the choice of language—what to label accurately. Those things were important for us in the process.
Testament: The first season was so much about freedom. There’s a continual theme about people finding and fighting for freedom in different ways. Thematically, it just made sense. History has always been viewed through a particular lens; certain characters have fallen by the wayside. Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, Alexandre Dumas’ father, was this war hero in charge of one of the biggest armies in the French Revolution. There are people like Chevalier Saint George who mentored him, but this has been erased from history. It was people like Napoleon who brought back slavery after the French Revolution got rid of it, had beef with Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, and tried to leave the black guy in prison.
I’m half African heritage and half European in my bloodline. I have slave owners on my African side and on my European side, slaves and oppressed. I’m passionate about hearing different sides of the human experience, and that’s what great art can do. We can have a platform for different stories, but not just for the sake of it to push the narrative forward. Being historically accurate, you’re gonna see some Black faces and Black stories pop up, so we wanted it to be authentic and not just people put it in there for the sake of it.
io9: Were there any elements vital to you for Nocturne to nail in the writers’ room regarding Black representation?
Zyoni: Everything felt vital. Being able to go back and have conversations with the directors and the animators about hair texture, clothing, and cultural research on why certain characters have specific clothing and facial features. We did all of that work because representation felt important to us. When you start thinking about where we jumped to in time, there’s no way we can land in in Haiti suddenly with way more Black characters and not do the work and create a series that felt true to research.
io9: There have always been clichés for how Black characters are represented in animation. Whether it’s how hair isn’t quite right or how, if Black character is a monster, it’s leaning on stereotypes that aren’t kosher. What was the collaborative process between the animation team and the writers over how characters should look in the show?
Nyoni: I remember conversing about the evolution of Annette’s hair. They drew up different hairstyles, [studied] the meaning behind getting the hair texture accurate, and then went back and looked at images. We can’t be doing all this contextual research around world-building but not go back and look at what these characters look like.
At one point, I was going, “The shape of the nose isn’t right. You can’t do this copy-and-paste thing of the same physical features but then just make everybody shades of brown. It just isn’t going to work.” So we sat down and talked a lot about why that mattered. I think what was really great is the team was always open to those conversations and understanding. Representation isn’t just about whether or not are we using the right language. It’s also about what is it we visually see.
I really appreciate being included in those kinds of conversations because it meant this idea around representation had a through line across the board. I hate it when you watch shows and you go, “Oh, they got that element right, but they completely didn’t pay attention to this thing here.” It’s also to do with the length of time it takes to create this series. You have more space to have those conversations. It helps to have a receptive team that wants to hear why those things are necessary as opposed to trying to cut corners.
io9: Nyoni, as the writer of Annette’s breakout episode in season one, what was your reaction to the response?
Nyoni: When we were talking about which episodes everybody wanted to write, I was always drawn to Annette. I wanted to write an origin episode and think about where she comes from, her family’s background, and the connection to her spirituality, ancestors, deities, and Orishas.
It’s been lovely seeing spaces where Annette is embraced and celebrated. People love how badass and complex she is, but [also] seeing how people discuss Annette in relation to the games and the expectations of Black characters—whether or not it’s about their visibility or in spaces where they’ve decided that Black folks shouldn’t be visible. It’s interesting thinking about how people pick at this idea of Blackness, visibility, or representation in fictional spaces and whether or not we’re having multiple conversations within this show.
We need to be able to go, “What’s the thing that we’re saying about fictional stories? What’s the thing that we’re saying about adaptations? What’s the thing that we’re saying about blackness and visibility?” But sometimes it feels like all this stuff got enmeshed into one and exposed people’s prejudice and racial biases. I’ve always been massively proud of Annette as a character. It felt like such a privilege to write her and see people’s reactions to the depiction of voodoo and Orishas and loving it.
io9: There’s a scene in season two where Richter and Annette discuss Henry the Last’s execution, allyship, the consequences of revolutions, and those who symbolize authority meeting their end, right or wrong. How important was keeping that prescient revolution theme ongoing while having characters converse without talking down to each other?
Nyoni: When people start revolutions, they are determined to challenge the institutions that no longer serve them. Having characters like Annette as the voice of that change, we’re doing it on different levels where we can tackle the meaning, purpose, and desire for the Haitian Revolution. Inevitably, we have this dynamic with levels of protagonist and antagonist—whether or not it’s in the context of Castlevania or the world we live in. You’ve got to find your people and organize to effect change.
We see this at the top of the series when Annette seeks out the Belmonts. You constantly have to find your tribe of people who are also invested in this change that you want to bring about. We cannot do it alone.
This idea that revolutions and civil rights movements happen and everything is done is not true because society is a living, breathing thing constantly organizing. What I really liked about the way we edited season one is that sometimes you get this idea that everything’s tied up nicely in a bow, and you’re done. But the fight continues, and I think it will continue regardless of whether we’re in a season three, four, or five. The fight doesn’t just begin or end with you. Characters like Annette must return to their ancestors for that internal strength and rich conversation around revolution. In the African context, you’re not fighting alone with those alive. You’re also doing it with the living dead; their answers never leave you and are part of your strength in the fight.
Testament: What I love about our writers’ room is that we’ve all got slightly different political nuances, and none of us want to dumb down. For example, the church was sending Trevor to fight vampires, whereas, in the Castlevania Netflix series, the Church instigated the whole crisis in the first place. Texture, layers, and history are fused within that love for the game.
I am a person of faith, hence Testament. My issues with organized religion are real, and the conversation between Maria and the Abbott in episode seven of season one is a grown-up conversation. No one is entirely right or entirely wrong. Maria is generally more right than her crazy, corrupt dad. Still, he’s got some points, and they’re having an honest theological debate.
We still want it to be sensational and spectacle, with crazy battles and fantastic animation. Still, it’s a grown-up show, with beauty and nuance [that] we try to put into a 24-minute episode, which is ambitious. When dealing with nuance, some people will get it, and some people will not, but it’s all in there.
io9: What was your favorite character moment in Castlevania: Nocturne that you had a hand in writing, and why?
Testament: Drolta is one of my favorite characters. Even before we’d written the dialogue and saw the design for her, I was like, “This is the person I want to go for drinks with.” In my episode, we get to see a bit of her backstory and why she is the way she is, which ties back to her African heritage via the Nubians in Egypt—the different cults and different religions within Egypt at the time. I was talking to Egyptologists at Manchester University about, you know, what they would have used and what the ceremony would have been.
Of course, we have some dramatic licenses, but we take them seriously. We still have this British sensibility—that sort of irony and dryness from the first and fourth seasons. Although Temi is of Nigerian heritage, Zodwa is Zimbabwean, I’m half English, half Ghanaian, we’ve fully grown up in schools and education and a culture of very dry humor, snarkiness, sarcasm, and nerdiness. That spans a singular race. To honor the Haitian Revolution, which was the only fully successful slave uprising for a whole nation was a monumental moment—all the world paid attention to [it] at the time, and the French empire got a bloody nose from that.
Nyoni: We talk a lot about spirituality and Annette’s connection with her ancestors in the first season, but by the time we get to the second season, we’re not able to delve into that world because, up to this point, so much of kind of her access has always been through Cécile Fatiman. Now, there’s so much growth within her and her powers that we can see how she transports herself into other realms and assists the team in fighting Erzsabet in unexpected ways.
io9: There’s been a rise in the gaming zeitgeist that coincides with the entertainment industry, where stories centering on Black characters are deemed woke and pejorative. For Nocturne specifically, a small minority of the viewing audience scoffed at the swapping of Annette, accusing the series of not remaining faithful to the games as “Blackwashing” or forced inclusivity for a “Black quota.” As a writer, what’s your reaction to the discourse that routinely sounds off whenever a Black character is highlighted in a show?
Bradley: [Richter’s] girlfriend in the game is Annette, which is a French name, so we used that name. It certainly wasn’t because of some supposed need for a “quota” of Black characters. Netflix never said anything about that. It flowed from the logic of the story we wanted to tell.
A minority of the audience have attacked the show as “woke,” and so forth. Of course, on one level, that was to be expected. But it’s quite disturbing, to be honest, that some people see the element of the story which is, at core, ‘slavery is bad, freedom is good’, as controversial—or simplistic or something—and “woke.” I think maybe some people haven’t grasped that the Haitian Revolution was a real thing that actually happened, which most people don’t know about. If it’s “woke” to tell a story which is partly about that, well, so be it.
Testament: I think all conversation is welcome as long as we aren’t shutting down conversation on whatever side. I think it’s an opportunity to talk about how the French Revolution had important Black people. When the new politics of the revolution was starting, you had freed slaves in parliament.
The first Black representative was in Paris during that era. There was a Black area of Paris at that time. That’s real stuff.
Even going back to that famous conversation between Richter and Dracula [in the games], they talk about slavery and religion. Richter asks Dracula, “You wanna enslave all men’s souls?” This freedom narrative for Richter goes back to the games; all we’re doing is adding to that. Hopefully, taking limited characters like Annette [who] in the computer games has purple hair and is a damsel in distress originally that hasn’t got many lines [or] much of a story arc, it’s like, “Please save me, Richter. I believe in you, Richter.” That’s her story arc.
Annette starts at a different place but grows to believe in Richter. She isn’t a damsel in distress but can handle her own as women in that period did, historically. We just conveniently forget about it sometimes. Richter is still the hero, still kicks butt, and takes names. He’s flawed; he’s on a journey. To start with him was like Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t make sense for us. He’s still the main dude; he has strong supporting friends.
Nyoni: It’s interesting when you think about these perceived white spaces that Black characters and people are not supposed to exist in. Historically, Black folks have been around in spaces where white people think that we have not been. We have long-rooted histories in spaces. You end up with this outcry about Blackwashing and you go, “What’s the thing that you are actually afraid of?” When we go back to the series, there is this evolution of characterization with what do you do with Annette from the game to the TV series. Where do adaptations sit? What space are they allowed to occupy? Nobody’s stopping you from playing the games.
There’s something really interesting and creative we’re doing with the series that allowed us to end up with this character with a Haitian background that looked back to Yorùbá. We were able to create a character that felt more relevant to the space and world that we had built, and I think it would have been just so massively incomprehensible to have landed during the kind of Haitian revolution without showing that vastness of Blackness, culture, religion, and meaningful representation.
In popular culture, when it comes to the representation of people of color, I think it is crucial, and there is nothing about the existence of Annette that I regret. I am so proud of that character, and I’m so proud of the work that has gone in not only with myself but with the writing team as a whole that we’ve done in her narrative thread in the world we built together. Somebody else’s prejudice and racism are not for me to tackle. I just have to continue to write great stories. That is my only task.
io9: What impact do you hope Castlevania: Nocturne‘s story will have on the gaming and animation industry?
Nyoni: When the first series came out, we saw the impact in real-time. Once the series had been out for a while, we started to see cosplay and go, “Oh snap, people are embodying the idea you had of all these characters.” It is exciting to have more spaces where you can find new writers and writers can find themselves. But it takes showrunners like [Bradley] to say “I need new voices in the space.” Showrunners and producers have to work to bring those voices in; otherwise, where do we find that entry point? I don’t know how else I would have gotten here if they hadn’t requested different voices in the space.
Testament: The power of stories to share different experiences [with] our love of video games and culture. When I grew up, there weren’t heroes who looked like me, so we had Bruce Lee. There were some athletes, but in terms of the animated space and the anime space, you had Kaneda—he was my guy—but he didn’t look like me. I love Akira and everything it says about government and how we live our lives. You can have a cool motorbike chase, but you can also think about what totalitarian states are.
[Castlevania: Nocturne has] a great opportunity to have conversations and to discuss things that don’t typically get discussed. My favorite art gives me sensation and emotion but also might leave me with other things to like to think about.
All eight episodes of Castlevania: Nocturne season two are streaming on Netflix.
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