Netflix’s ‘Devil May Cry’ Producer Says Animated Series Takes Cues From Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy: “He Didn’t Make Any Wild Changes Or Anything, But He’s Setting It In The Real World”
According to producer Adi Shankar, Netflix’s upcoming animated take on Devil May Cry takes heavy inspiration from Christopher Nolan’s famous cinematic Batman trilogy, particularly in how its portrayal of Dante and his demon-infested world does not go “wild” with its changes.
Shankar, who readers may recognize as the producer for several Netflix video game adaptations including Castlevania, Castlevania: Nocturne, and Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix, provided this insight into his next project while speaking with GamesRadar in promotion of its fast-approaching release date.
Pressed by the outlet as to what he hoped fans, both new ones coming in with the series and those who have rocked with Dante since his debut in the original Devil May Cry, would get out of the animated experience, the producer asserted, “The same thing for both – unity, harmony,”
“You know, it’s really just an understanding that we are, as adults, attempting to reclaim what it is that we lost as children,” Shankar explained. “And realize that we’re all doing that. All whatever billion of us on the planet – we’re all doing that, we’re all attempting to regain what we lost as children, and some of us are more conscious of it than others.”
“But this is something that should bring us together as a species,” he added. “Like, we’re all going through this same thing. It’s just, you know, treat each other with kindness. Because the villain of your story is the hero of their own story.”
To this thematic end, Shankar then noted that this attempt at ‘frank realism’ was inspired by none other than the aforementioned Nolan’s handling of The Caped Crusader.
“[The show] was inspired by Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, because it’s Batman – it’s the Batman you know, he didn’t, like, make any wild changes or anything,” he asserted. “But he’s setting it in the real world, right? It’s not in this, like, Tim Burton world. It’s not in this Joel Schumacher world. It’s not in a cartoon world. It’s in the real world.”
As to why he chose to set the series in the ‘real world’, Shankar further explained, “The reason for that, actually, is the DMC franchise, at its core, is – the characters are all rooted in tragedy, their backstories are. So, I think moving into the real world allowed that tragedy to become even more relatable and even more grounded in reality, and grounded in psychological realism.”
Unfortunately for Shankar, from what fans have seen of the character’s animated incarnation thus far, this attempt to ‘translate’ a source material-accurate Dante into a more heavily-grounded setting is shaping up to be less ‘Nolan’s Batman’ and more ‘Paramount’s Halo‘.
For the best example of this discrepancy, look no further than the difference in the Son of Sparda’s own characterization between the game and the animated series.
In the former, as seen in the opening to Devil May Cry 3, while Dante is shown to be somewhat ‘laid back’, aloof, and even jovial in his approach to killing Demons, his attitude is the result of him being truly aware of the absolute gravity that Sparda’s potential return brings with it.
As such, while he amuses himself by treating many of his fights like a big game, he is always ready to lock in at a moment’s notice.
However, the same cannot be said of the animated Dante.
In the below clip, after gunning down a group of Demons in pursuit of a civilian woman, the half-Demon hero realizes that he has no follow-up one-liner, and thus takes a beat to workshop his post-fight one-liner with his recent rescue.
Eventually, he settles on a reference to real-world pop culture, proceeding to taunt his recent skull-faced kills, “Man, Skeletor did NOT hold up since the 80s”, before ultimately admitting that the joke was not his “best work”.
Comparing the two, the Dante in the games is a cool, calm, and collected individual who uses humor to both enrage his enemies and keep himself entertained (and to a certain extent, calm) while slicing through countless, seemingly unending waves of enemies.
On the other hand, animated Dante is, simply put, a try-hard. Rather than any amount of authenticity, this version comes off as doing everything explicitly for the attention, his white-haired head seemingly obsessed with the fear that someone might not properly praise him if he doesn’t perform in a certain way.
All in all, leave it to Shankar to once again misunderstand the basic tenets of the media he claims to be so heavily invested in adapting.
For those still interested in checking out the series, Netflix’s Devil May Cry is currently set to hit the streaming platform this Thursday, April 3rd.
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