One of the biggest criticisms from fans regarding the first season of Adi Shankar’s Devil May Cry adaptation was that, in reconfiguring the story as a critique of the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, it lost sight of exactly what it is that DmC is supposed to be – namely, a story about a demon hunter named Dante repelling numerous would-be demonic invasions of the human realm. A perceived lack of fidelity to the source material is a criticism that has plagued video game adaptations for years, from Mortal Kombat to the quickly approaching Resident Evil reboot, and in all fairness, the political commentary introduced in Season 1 is certainly a far cry from anything on the surface of the games.
However, the explosive and emotional second season certainly rectifies this problem by marrying the show’s original allegory with more recognizable elements from the lore of the games, specifically the long-awaited re-introduction/showdown between twins Dante and Vergil as well as the appearance of the shadowy Uroboros Corporation and its corporate head Arius. When it’s revealed that Arius doesn’t want to end the invasion of Makai and instead wants to resurrect and merge with its original dictator Argosax, those adaptational liberties fuse with the operatic conflict at the heart of Devil May Cry, setting the stage for one final battle between Dante and Vergil. In a recent interview with Inverse, the show’s creator Adi Shankar pretty much confirmed that a Season 3 will continue that trend of diving deeper into the lore of the source material, and provided a brief glimpse at where the story goes next.
