Enter the Devil May Cry Animated Series: From CONSOLE to Screen

There’s another major contender in the entertainment space where gaming handhelds and TVs begin to blur, but this one’s coming out swinging. Netflix has released the first footage of the Devil May Cry anime series, in partnership with Capcom and Studio Mir, which will premiere in April 2025. This glimpse into the demon-slaying series hopefully holds us over until we get the full show, which will extend this major gaming franchise from the consoles to the screen.

The Enigmatic Teaser: A Prelude to an Epic Saga

Somewhere in the throes of Netflix Geeked Week 2024 Live, among the bubble-headed Shaft, the mad Q from a Bond parody, the dopey Tina Turner and the Upside Down haircuts of on-set Stranger Things stylists, streams the teaser trailer for the hotly anticipated Dante. Dante the demon hunter. It’s a whirlwind of swordplay, gun action and one overly menacing white rabbit, the sort of glorious montage that announces a world where honour and villainy bluster into battle. The ad is at once a few minutes long and fleeting – a Westernised call to arms, set in the divine kingdom of Erria, and inviting audiences to come along for the ride. And there, halfway through the teaser, half an iceberg beneath the surface, is Dante Alighieri, the 14th-century Italian poet of The Divine Comedy, the mega-epic poem on which the new show’s ‘inspiration’ is based. Those in the know are in on the joke, but many viewers will pass all the way through the trailer without even noticing the namesake of Dante’s Inferno, the ninth circle of hell, the vast text from which the show’s ‘pilot’ gains its name. It’s already garnered 4.7 million views on Netflix, so you might want to go binge one of those other, better shows while you still can.

Dante Rises: The Transition from Game to Anime

Dante, the protagonist of Capcom’s iconic Devil May Cry series, has not been seen since the release of Devil May Cry 5 in 2019, unless you count the less-than-sterling treatment he received in the terrible Chinese mobile game Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat. The fans have been clamouring for more of him for a while now, which brings us to the latest iteration of the series – an animated version from producer Adi Shankar, whose work on mighty game franchises to actually watchable Netflix shows like Castlevania has been immaculate (he also had a hand in the ill-fated Captain Laserhawk series). This version, also also called Devil May Cry, could very well be the new fan-favourite.

The Shankar Effect: Breathing Life into CONSOLE Classics

From the start, Shankar has time and again shown that he can turn console legends into movies that are both epic and empathetic in their vision. By making each series stand apart through its tone and storytelling, each is not just a tribute to the games that spawned them but a means to broaden their lore and fanbase. With his upcoming output of an Assassin’s Creed television series, as well as projects based on PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Hyper Light Drifter, Devil May Cry is likely to be a heady mix of spectacle and adrenaline when it drops.

A Symphony of Adaptations: Netflix's Gaming Pantheon

As we can see, Netflix has gone on to pick up a handful of video game adaptations: the latest is the action anime Devil May Cry, and it’s part of a treasure trove of a library that includes Dragon’s Quest and Dragon’s Dogma, the cartoon shenanigans of The Cuphead Show!, and more. The Tomb Raider franchise, already one of the video game industry’s most iconic series, features the adventures of archaeologist Lara Croft. Lara is a video game version of Indiana Jones or Tintin, another series that Netflix has already picked up and turned into a slick animated film for audiences of all ages. With all these console legends jumping the proverbial shark and making the leap from games to narrative spectacle, a new kind of media culture is forming, where the distinction between video games and TV – or movies and books – is all but erased.

What Lies Ahead: The Anticipation Builds

If you are a gamer, an anime fan or even a casual Twitter user, then you cannot miss the unmistakable buzz in the air. With filming due to begin in 2023 and the release scheduled for April 2025, the renewed Devil May Cry series is beckoning the beloved gaming and anime communities into a tantalising hyperspace. Every new detail appears and, with every new teaser, the chances of the Devil May Cry series bringing that great nostalgia for the games – and for Dante himself – may prove to be more than just a rose-tinted retrospection. And, with Netflix continuing to up its game in the world of gaming, one thing seems certain; that the future of entertainment sits securely on the shoulders of consoles, and bold new narrative pursuits.

Understanding CONSOLES: The Heartbeat of Gaming

Consoles, the devices that deliver the experience of playing an interactive game, are the foundation for the Devil May Cry franchise and for many other games. From their earliest incarnations as limited-function box units to the supercomputer behemoths of today, the ‘box’ is as intertwined with the software and culture as it is with the hardware. From their launch, consoles are designed to immerse players in fantastic worlds; as this slice of fantasy is transferred to screen, it brings with it the physical participation of the player’s mind and body, the way that each world was explored as fingers moved across buttons and sticks.

What’s interesting about Devil May Cry is the degree to which the original light-mashing demon-smashing interactive experience on consoles has been transformed into something that looks close to its passive, yet equally joyous, storytelling experience on Netflix. With that comes a huge new pool of fans experiencing in passive form narratives, characters, worlds, and imaginative scenarios previously only available to gamers.

Post-Gaming Entertainment Era

And as we start to enter what might be called the post-gaming entertainment era – in which gaming consoles and cinematic storytelling grow together to open new worlds of expression and engagement – Devil May Cry’s series marks a new kind of creative potential. It is, we hope, the realisation of what becomes possible when worlds collide, as we bring the best of one world to the best of another, anywhere and everywhere.