Netflix ‘Devil May Cry’ Boss on How Series Is a Prequel for Video Game

Devil May Cry, Netflix‘s newest animated series, will soon be making its explosive premiere. The animated series, which is based on the popular video game and 2007 animated series of the same name, focuses on Dante, a demon hunter, who might be the only hope for humans against a demon who is trying to open the gates of Hell.

Showrunner and series creator Adi Shankar is a longtime fan of the original franchise, which first debuted as a video game in 2001 and got an animated series adaptation that came out in 2007. Shankar’s vision for this new adaptation comes to life with Netflix on Thursday, April 3.

Here, Shankar breaks down what inspired this new adaptation and take on the beloved characters with TV Insider. And get an exclusive look at Devil May Cry in the video, above.

When did you first get involved with this adaptation, and how did this happen from the beginning onward?

Adi Shankar: I first got involved in 2017, and then I think the initial deal for it closed in 2018. So, this has been a thing that’s been in the works for seven years.

What did you connect to the most when you first started playing the Devil May Cry video game? And how did that connection to the game evolve as you continued creating the series?

I thought the characters in the game were deep, rich, layered, and they’re iconic for a reason. When you look at Dante, his twin brother Virgil, even Lady, like, and characters that don’t even appear in the show yet…these are some of the most iconic characters in gaming. And there was a reason for that. It’s just because the characters are so nuanced, and unique. And part of the exercise here was preserving their uniqueness. Capturing it, and capturing the essence of it, and then moving it into a linear story.

Tell us about the Dante we meet in this adaptation. Is he the same as the video game, or is he different?

Well, this is the youngest version of Dante we’ll have in Season 1. This is the youngest version of Dante we’ll have ever experienced. He doesn’t have his iconic guns yet. He doesn’t really know much about his backstory. We are watching him in real time realize more about himself.

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The series hints at a romance between Dante and Mary, aka Lady. What can you tell us about their connection? What exactly draws them to one another?

Well, so in the show, again, this is the youngest version of Mary we will have ever seen. She doesn’t even go by Lady yet. Everyone calls her Mary because that’s her official name. So, what draws them to each other is that they’re both kids who have the same heart and dark past. They recognize it in each other. It’s a subconscious thing. It’s a sub-perceptual thing. They’re not realizing this, but when they look into each other’s eyes, they see a mirror of themselves.

For people who will be watching this series for the first time without knowing anything about the video game, how would you describe the tone to convince people to watch it?

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You don’t need to have an understanding of the video game to watch and enjoy the show.  That was intentionally designed that way. I wanted to take this thing that I loved, which is this game franchise, which is more than a game franchise, actually. There’s a pachinko machine. There are live stage plays. There’s a manga novel. There’s been an earlier anime in 2007. So, this has been a media franchise. It’s been in existence since 2001. But what I wanted to really do with this is, because I love it so much, I wanted to open it up to more people.

So, you don’t need to understand anything. You don’t even need to know that it was a video game to be able to enjoy the show. And what I really wanted to do was make a blockbuster, like a Hollywood-style summer blockbuster from 1999 to 2004, during that window. We had so many great summer blockbusters, and I wanted to capture that spirit and the feeling of those. If you like those movies, things like Blade, Blade II, The Crow, I, Robot, and The Matrix, then you will dig the show because it’s very much in that world. It is really interesting.

How different is this show’s plot compared to the original anime?

This is a new universe. So, I [compare] this to Christopher Nolan‘s Batman trilogy or Iron Man. You don’t need to know anything about Batman to watch those movies. You don’t need to have known anything about Marvel or Iron Man or Captain America to understand that first Iron Man film. So, this is its own universe. It’s its own thing. The characters are the same, but it’s presented in a way where you can just go in blind, not even knowing that there is other Devil May Cry media out there historically. And just watch it.

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The series makes the viewer pick two different sides: the human side, which is the government, or the demon side, those trying to open the gates of Hell and destroy the government. And it shows how both sides have similar traits. There is no good or bad in this universe. How did you come up with the idea for this concept?  Was it already present in the video game?

There are really three answers I can give to this. The first is moral complexity, which is present in all of my work. Like everything I’ve ever done, there’s an element of moral complexity. Just having the life I’ve lived, I understand that there’s a reason for everything. Things don’t happen in a vacuum. There’s something that made the bad guy bad. There’s something that drives people to act the way they do. And we’re all part of a freight train that started a millennium ago. We’re just expressions of that, right? We materialize on this planet, and all of a sudden, we’re handed an identity and a belief system and whatnot. We’re just on the path, and some of us wake up and realize what’s happening, but for the most part, most of us are just part of this freight train that started a millennium ago. So, that’s just in my work, period.

With respect to the game franchise, the games make it very clear, both in the deeper lore, but also there’s [a recurring theme in]  the original 2007 anime [that’s] also in the manga and in the hidden text of the games, that not all demons are bad. It’s not, unequivocally, demon bad, human good. There’s a line that there are some humans who are way worse than demons. And there are some demons that are more compassionate than humans. So, that was present in the franchise to begin with. I do feel like I amplified that, and I did bring it more front and center to explore that a little bit more because I found that very interesting.

What can you tell us about the tragedies that unfold throughout the season? How do these tragedies shape the roles of each character?

Well, if you look at all the characters in Season 1, they’re all born of tragedy. It’s essentially hurt kids reliving their hurt over and over again, until it brings them together. So, when you look at The White Rabbit, when you look at Lady, every character in the show is essentially a hurt kid trying to regain what they lost as a kid.

Is Season 1 based solely on the first video game? Would each potential future season be based on the subsequent sequel games?

Season 1 is based on a prequel manga to the third game. That’s the closest comparable, but it is its own thing while also being very much a prequel, again. I’ve lived in this specific world for seven years now, and I meticulously plan everything; nothing’s by accident. No line of dialogue. No action. No punch. No kick. No music drop, no needle drops, no joke is there by accident. There are other forces at play, but I went into this with a master plan, let me just put it that way. And Season 1 is just part of that.

Devil May Cry, Series Premiere, Thursday, April 3, Netflix

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