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Warning: This article contains full spoilers for the fourth season of Castlevania! Be sure to check out IGN's full Castlevania: Season 4 review.

Netflix's critically acclaimed animated series Castlevania has reached its end. But there's good news. The streamer has already confirmed a spinoff series is in the works. And thanks to producer Kevin Kolde, we know that spinoff is not the same as the previously announced Devil May Cry anime.

How much does the final season of Castlevania set up this spinoff? Why did Dracula's character arc end in such an unexpected way? Is there still a story left to tell with Alucard Tepes, Trevor Belmony and Sypha Belnades? Let's break down exactly what happens in the series finale and what we might see when this horror universe returns in a future series, along with some new commentary from Kolde.

Why Is Dracula Alive Again?

The series ends with Alucard, Trevor and Sypha enjoying a hard-fought victory and setting about the task of building a better world in the shadow of Castle Dracula. But as we see in the final scene, even Dracula himself is given a second chance at happiness. Both he and his wife Lisa have returned to the mortal realm, but in their own bodies rather than fused together inside Germain's disgusting creation.

Based on what we know about the laws of magic and the afterlife in this world, it seems that souls plucked from Hell automatically reincarnate in their old bodies. Because Dracula and Lisa's souls were pulled out of the Rebis, they instead returned to their old bodies. The two seem content to live out the rest of their lives in quiet obscurity, far from haunted castles and fearful, witch-burning villagers.

This is quite a change from the video game source material. The Castlevania games show Dracula returning every few decades to haunt the lands of Transylvania and do battle with the heirs of the Belmont bloodline. The series finale suggests fate may have something kinder in store for Dracula in this version.

"It felt right," producer Kevin Kolde tells IGN. "The way we approached it with Dracula and Lisa, there certainly was, I don't know, a great love there. To have them have an opportunity to experience that at the end, outside of all the insanity that happened and with hindsight on Dracula's part to realize maybe what he had done and how it was wrong, I think it just... It felt right. I don't think it's the end of the Dracula story or has to be the end of the Dracula story in the series. How it goes forward from there is certainly something to be explored."

As Kolde hints, that doesn't necessarily mean Dracula's story is finished. There's no guarantee the world's most powerful vampire won't eventually slide back into villainy. The ending makes it clear Dracula is still a vampire while Lisa remains human. What happens when she inevitably succumbs to old age? What happens when Dracula loses her all over again? Will she be tempted to join the undead in order to spend the rest of eternity with her husband. Those questions may be fodder for the upcoming spinoff series.

Castlevania Season 4: Explaining Death and the Rebis

Castlevania has always treated Dracula as less an outright villain than a tragic, tormented figure. So it's fitting that he ends the series not as the main antagonist, but an unwilling pawn in a scheme hatched by Death itself. As we learn over the course of Season 4, the vampire rogue Varney is actually a disguised Death. Death planted itself inside Dracula's inner circle, stoking Dracula's hatred of humanity in the hope of unleashing a tidal wave of destruction across the world. In this world, Death is basically like Galactus. It needs to feed, and no one is better at sending poor souls to the afterlife than Dracula.

Ultimately, Season 4 is about Death's attempt to usher in Dracula's resurrection by manipulating reluctant allies like Saint Germain and Ratko. Death uses Saint Germain to create a Rebis, an alchemical fusion of male and female meant to serve as a new host body for Dracula's soul. Interestingly, the Rebis really does appear in various alchemical and religious texts dating back hundreds of years, though the concept of a Rebis was more intended to represent a state of total enlightenment and mind/body unification rather than a physical object. But in a world where vampires lurk around every corner, why not throw in a creepy flesh golem for good measure?

In any case, Death's plan is halted at the last minute when Germain realizes the true toll his creation will have on the world. Germain stops the bonding process, leaving Trevor free to battle and ultimately destroy Death with an enchanted dagger. Germain doesn't find the happy ending he craved. With his dying breath, he sees his lost lover watching him from inside the Infinite Corridor, before she turns away out of either pity or disgust. But Trevor is spared a grisly death, as Germain's last act is to open another portal into the Infinite Corridor and give Trevor a literal escape hatch back into the physical world.

What Is the Castlevania Spinoff Series?

Castlevania executive producer Adi Shankar first teased a Devil May Cry animated series in 2018, revealing the series would exist in the same "bootleg multiverse" as Castlevania. Previously, we speculated the Infinite Corridor (which was introduced in Castlevania: Season 3) would serve as the bridge between the two shows. That still seems a likely possibility, given that the Corridor contains passages to countless other worlds.

Unfortunately, we've heard little word on the DMC series since 2018, and it's not clear if the show is currently in active development. But we do know the recently announced Castlevania spinoff is not the Devil May Cry project Shankar teased. Kolde confirms this spinoff is a completely separate project set in the same world as Castlevania.

"I can't really talk that much about it. We'll talk more in the future. It would solely be focused on elements and characters from the Castlevania universe. I wouldn't really call it a spinoff," Kolde teases. "The idea is that it's a new series, new characters from the Castlevania timeline, but it's not directly spinning off from these guys in the current [show]."

Fans of the Castlevania games will know the series' timeline spans roughly a millennium, ranging from the medieval era to the mid-21st Century. We can probably infer from Kolde's comments that the new series is either a prequel (perhaps revealing more about Dracula's origins and his original human identity as Mathias Cronqvist) or a sequel. The series finale certainly seems to pave the way for a sequel, with the reveal that Trevor and Sypha are expecting a child. The Castlevania games show Dracula returning to un-life every few decades, with new generations of Belmonts rising up to slay the vampire lord and restore peace to the land. According to the series' timeline, it's not until 1999 that Dracula is finally slain for good, and even that doesn't entirely end his reign of terror.

The new series could easily jump ahead decades or even centuries to show a descendant of Trevor and Sypha continuing the family legacy. And because the half-vampiric Alucard is more or less immortal, there's no reason he couldn't return to join forces with this younger Belmont.

Based on the plot of this first series, we wouldn't expect the spinoff to be a direct adaptation of any particular Castlevania games. The show draws on elements of several Castlevania games, but even then, it's a very loose adaptation of the source material. The same will probably hold true for the new series. It may feature familiar protagonists like Simon Belmont or Soma Cruz, but the plot will continue to veer in its own, unique direction. We don't even know whether Dracula will be cast as a villain again. Netflix has only scratched the surface of the horrors lurking in the Castlevania universe.

Which Games Inspired the Netflix Series?

The Castlevania franchise has so far spawned several dozen games between 1986 and 2019, along with numerous other spinoffs, remasters and collections. With so many games covering such a large span of time, fans of the Netflix series may be wondering which games specifically inspired the plot of the show. Here's a quick rundown:

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (1989) - The third and final entry in the original Castlevania trilogy on the NES, this game has the most obvious influence on the Netflix series. Like the show, Dracula's Curse features Trevor, Alucard and Sypha teaming up to battle Dracula in 15th Century Wallachia, though the game also features a pirate named Grant Danasty as a fourth playable character. Sadly, Grant never made the jump to Netflix. Dracula's Curse isn't particularly heavy on plot, so the Netflix series embellishes and reimagines this basic premise quite a bit.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997) - Widely considered to be one of the greatest entries in the series, Symphony of the Night established the nonlinear action RPG formula many subsequent games have followed. While the show does draw on Symphony of the Night in terms of the Alucard/Dracula dynamic, the game's influence is mostly visual. Artist Ayami Kojima's iconic Castlevania character designs clearly informed the look and tone of the Netflix series.

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (2005) - Curse of Darkness is set a few years after Dracula's Curse and revolves around the rivalry between Dracula's two Forgemasters, Hector and Isaac. In the game's climax, Hector battles a Dracula-possessed Isaac to prevent his former master from returning to life. The game also introduces the time-travelling Saint Germain. Clearly, Curse of Darkness heavily inspired the latter two seasons of the show, though many of the details regarding Hector and Isaac's relationship and their overall roles within the saga have changed.

Again, the Netflix series is, at most, a loose adaptation of several key entries in the Castlevania saga. Creator/writer Warren Ellis has never been shy about admitting to a lack of prior exposure to the games and his desire to explore the horror movie roots of Castlevania rather than strictly adhere to the plot of the games.

"When I was first contacted about Castlevania, some 10 years ago, I went to the internet to look it up, and what immediately struck me was how it initially appeared, to me, at least, to be a Japanese transposition of the Hammer Horror films I grew up with and loved," Ellis told Paste in 2017. "I’m sure that’s a completely wrong-headed perception, by the way, but that’s how it hit me, and how I realized I could write a medieval horror fiction while obeying the ground rules of the work being adapted."

Are there any specific Castlevania games you hope to see adapted in the next series? Let us know in the comments below.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.