Castlevania: Nocturne teases a return to one of the series' most beloved entries

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The Netflix series serves up our first look at the sexy, troubled, whip-loving Richter.

Castlevania's Netflix adaptation was a bloody good time, and finished off with a flourish in its fourth season. Netflix made it clear that, while that arc of the show was over, plenty more was coming, including a series starring Richter Belmont and Maria Renard.

Fans of the games thus expected this series to bear some relation to Castlevania II: Rondo of Blood. It certainly does, and the above teaser gives us our first glimpse of Richter Belmont and the voices that call out to him, as well as a pretty sweet whip. Richter's a descendant of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, the leads in Netflix's first Castlevania series, and this new tale is set during the infamously bloody period of the French Revolution.

Powerhouse Animation is the studio behind the series and this brief first look shows a Richter reminiscent of the much-beloved 1993 game. It's pretty faithful actually: The main alterations seem to be that his jacket from later entries is preferred to the original blue tunic he wore, and he's lost the bandana and is no longer sleeveless.

There's no other information on Castlevania: Nocturne, though we do know it will run under the direction of new showrunner Clive Bradley. Previous lead Warren Ellis was taken off the show after more than 60 women accused the showrunner of sexual misconduct, but not before completing work on season 4.

Castlevania: Nocturne doesn't yet have a release date. Meantime you could maybe catch up on the original series, which we reckon is among the best game adaptations ever.

Rich Stanton
Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."