Episode 1:
Vlad Tepes Dracula was born the son of the infamous Vlad Dracul, also known as Vlad the Elder in Schassburg, Transylvania (now Sighisoara, Romania) in 1430 A.D. The year is 1444, and he is 14 years old as he accompanies his father, older brother Mircea, and younger brother Radu to Turkey, where they plan to negotiate for peace with the Ottoman Empire. They are ambushed en route by agents of Sultan Murad II, who hold the sons captive, to force Vlad the Elder to adopt policies that favored Turkey. Feeling betrayed, John Hunyadi, who was Vlad’s most trusted ally and Vlad's other advisers revolt against him a few weeks after he had returned, killing him and Vlad’s eldest brother Mircea who was spared not to suffer in prison like his brothers. Vlad and his brother Radu remained prisoners for 3 years, suffering much humiliation and torture until Radu had eventually succumbed to his internal injuries caused by a brutal beating from the guards when he tried to stick up for his brother Vlad. It was here when Vlad broke down due to losing his brother that he truly learned his lessons in cruelty, for the only thing keeping him alive was the desire to get vengeance on everyone had wronged his family.
Episode 2:
Vlad attempts to escape after carefully planning it since Radu’s death, and rips out his fingernails to use them to kill two of the guards, later using one of their swords to stab a few other guards to death during his escape. Vlad was barely skilled with a sword, but he challenged his sheer will to escape and desire for revenge to get himself out of there alive. Vlad anxiously returns home to claim the title of Prince of Wallachia at the age of 18, feeling like a completely different person than when he left 4 years ago with his father and brothers. His entire back, some of his upper chest, legs and abdomen were covered with scars from all his torture in the Turkish prison.
While he is on the more rural areas in Wallachia, he meets a woman his age named Maria and after spending some time with her, they make a connection which makes Vlad realize he can still find hope and maybe happiness after all he has endured. Vlad begins to spend a lot of time with Maria and they end up having a romantic relationship where he shows her his scars.
His reign lasts only a year before Maria convinces him to flee after he narrowly escapes two assassination attempts on his life, ordered by John Hunyadi who saw him as a threat.
Episode 3:
Two years later in 1451, Vlad is in Moldavia where he decides he’s finished with running, and returns home at Hunyadi’s mercy. Hoping to add legitimacy to his regency, Hunyadi took Vlad under his wing, teaching him the arts of war, and overseeing Vlad's pre-arranged marriage to Zofia, a Hungarian noblewoman. Vlad was expected to have a child with her as he did, a girl named Lilith, but he paid both very little attention to either of them as he felt it was wrong because he wanted a family with Maria, and he devoted all his energy into his training with Hunyadi to transform himself into a living weapon. One year after their marriage, after having a nightmare of Maria dying, Vlad strips Zofia of her royal standing and demands she leaves within the night with all of her belongings and Lilith. A broken Zofia gives Lilith to an elderly gypsy named Gretchin, giving her all the money she had, and then kills herself knowing if she returns home she would be killed for her failed marriage.
Episode 4
Four years later in 1456, Vlad has managed to gain Hunyadi’s complete trust, and he rewards Vlad by helping him again officially becoming the Prince of Wallachia. He gains possession of the castle he grew up in alongside his brothers.
He meets with Maria for the first time in six years and tells her they can almost finally be together, but he has to take care of his past before he can truly move on to a future with her. Claverling and Vlad start to trust each other and form a close a friendship.
When they are alone, Vlad gets Hunyadi drunk on red wine and thanks him for all the training and skills he taught him over the years. He states that he bid his time well but now was finally the time to utilize them, Vlad then surprises John by impaling him alive, as Vlad sips a cup of red wine as he watches him die. In a move that completely surprised all of his political adversaries, Vlad then orders the impalement of all those involved in his brother and father’s assassinations, as well as the unsuccessful attempts on his own life, this is essentially where he earns the title of Vlad the Impaler. His second act is ordering a mass assault on the hordes of Turkey while he participates in a covert assault with just a few men on the Turkish prison where he and his brother spent years imprisoned and tortured. We witness Vlad’s amazing skill with a sword as he single handily cuts through dozens of guards with ease and precision, later impaling one who he recognized from his time there. He orders Claverling to release all the prisoners to cause more chaos for the Turks to deal with.
Episode 5
Turac and his ally Korda are dispatched with a group of soldiers by Sultan Murad II to take care of the escaped prisoners that were let out by Vlad and his men. We witness Turac’s incredible skill in battle with a spear that he uses to kill many of the prisoners, and Korda later tortures one of them to learn that it was Prince Vlad who had released them. Turac takes notice of the impaled guard.
Vlad returns home feeling he can be truly at peace after finishing his mission to get revenge on his past, but he was trying to distract him from how much he enjoyed dishing out pain. He makes it home and is so happy to be reunited with Maria, proposing to her with her saying yes. They get married at Vlad’s castle, with Claverling as Vlad’s best man. Vlad is drinking red wine after leaving his wife alone to get some sleep after being intimate in their chambers, he looks out across the land from his castle. Vlad realizes with how much he stands to lose now, retreating to a secret room in his castle which was filled with torture devices and weapons.
Episode 6
Three years later in 1459 Vlad now has an infant son named Vlad Tepulus and has started having strange visions and dreams of glorious victories of war and grandeur.
We see the parallel of Vlad training his soldiers, as Turac and Korda, how have now been appointed as Lord and Baron, also train their soldiers, later strategizing to attack Vlad’s army
German Knights of Teutonic Order lead by Frank Von Frankenstein have been on a mission to covert the “heathens” of Eastern Europe, often to the point of violence. Vlad is informed of their nearing arrival by Claverling, but is warned by his wife Maria how dangerous they are, but he takes a large group of men on horses with him to meet them in the fields outside.
Frank Von Frankenstein orders that they must convert to his religion or be taken as heretics and their city laid to siege, while bragging of his previous triumphs. Some of Vlad’s men are intimidated and quite scared, but Vlad jumps off his horse and confidently walks forward telling Von Frankenstein he should just turn around because he must not know who he’s talking to, he is not some Prince he can bend to his will, he is Vlad the Impaler. Frank orders his men to attack and an epic battle between the two forces takes place, with Vlad and Frank clashing swords at equal skill for a good while until Vlad remarks how his armor makes him slow, and takes the upper hand in the fight and stabs him through the face, the only opening in his armor. Afterwards Frank and his German knights were impaled on stakes outside Vlad’s castle, as Vlad watched while drinking wine; he convinced himself he did this to harden him of the harshness of the world, but in truth it gave him a sense of accomplishment . Unknown to Vlad: Lord Turac, Baron Korda, Gordo, and 2 other soldiers are sneaking through the forests of Wallachia, as they come across a bunch of impaled bodies.
Vlad is in the secret torture room in the his castle where he is inspecting Von Frankenstein’s armor, shield and sword when he noticed an odd symbol on the armor, one the audience would recognize as an ancient HYDRA symbol.
Episode 7
Prodded on by the visions from Varnae and against his wife Maria’s pleading for him not to, Vlad leads the forces of Transylvania against fighting off the third Turkish invasion lead by Lord Turac, after killing over 2 dozen men, he runs into Turac on the field of battle, who tells him it will be an honor to impale the impaler, with the two going at it. Vlad’s troops largely manage to drive off the wave of Turks, but were then slaughtered by Baron Korda’s Riders.
After a long and evenly matched duel, Vlad gets distracted by seeing his best friend Claverling getting cut down by Gordo’s sword and Turac impales Vlad’s shoulder with his spear but Vlad manages to cut the spear in half with his sword despite some of it still being impaled in him. He manages to fight off Turac for a bit longer despite being impaled, he manages to cut off two of Turac’s fingers until Turac slashes his chest and knees, ready to kill him slow until Baron convinces him to spare Vlad, saying he is more useful alive so they could use him to control Transylvania.
Korda mentions he heard of a gypsy named Lianda from Wundagore Mountain who lived in Transylvania who had a legendary healing prowess.
Convinced they have no better options, Turac has Gordo and another man take the gravely injured Vlad to the gypsy. She is revealed to be a vampire, and uses her “healing powers” by biting Vlad when he falls unconscious again from his injuries.
Episode 8
The next morning, an impatient Turac, along with Gordo, and the other men who took Vlad there, travel to Lianda’s caravan. They barge in and Turac demands to know how Vlad was doing. Lianda tells him he has to wait a full day and demands for Turac to pay her immediately. Fed up and annoyed, Turac slaps the old gypsy in the face telling her he will only pay her with death. Having grown tired of the charade, Lianda shows her vampiric self and attacks Turac, but is impaled by his new spear. Turac has Gordo pick up an unconscious Vlad as they leave, with Lianda turning into a pile of bones. After killing the guards, Turac and his soldiers return Vlad to his castle and chain him in his own dungeon. Although she puts up a fight and even stabs Gordo in the arm, Maria ends up being raped by Turac, Gordo, and some of his soldiers over Vlad’s unconscious body. Turac plans to use Maria and Vlad Tepulus against Vlad to persuade him to work for him. Eventually Vlad wakes up, not being aware of his transformation into a vampire. The equally unaware Turac starts to threaten him, parading Maria and their newborn son Vlad Tepulus and promising to hurt them if Vlad refused to cooperate. As Vlad is silent, not knowing how to process the situation suddenly Turac tells one of his soldiers to slit Maria’s throat, but Vlad shouts for them to stop and offers to aid Turac and the Turks. Turac leaves the family to themselves for a few minutes, allowing Maria to reveal to reveal she was raped by Turac and his soldiers. Turac overhears their conversation and bursts in, grabbing Maria to rape her again this time in front of a conscious Vlad. Franticly, she scratches Turac’s face and tries to get away from Turac, however in the scuffle she trips and strikes her head against the dungeon walls, the blow strong enough to kill break her neck. Not knowing his own powers, the now infuriated Vlad breaks his shackles and killed one of Turac’s soldiers with a single punch to the head. Now aware he had changed somehow, Vlad kills two more of his soldiers using his shackles including Gordo; realizing he was a vampire with the strength he displayed by hitting them; Vlad grabs Turac and bites his neck, draining him of most of his blood. Turac’s dying screams attracted the attention of the remaining Turkish soldiers who proved no match for Vlad, who picks up Turac’s spear to impale them. Vlad then takes his son and dead wife's corpse as he leaves the bloodbath at his castle. Alone in the Transylvanian wilderness, while he puts his wife's corpse to rest, he swears to his late wife that the entire world shall pay for her death. Realizing he is now a monster told by legends , and is no longer a fit father as he doom his child to be raised by a monster, Vlad leaves the boy with some trusted gypsy's to care for. A shot of the massacre in Vlad’s dungeon reveals that Turac is alive.
Episode 9
Vlad is adjusting for his new abilities as a vampire, including testing out his super strength, speed, agility, stamina while in the wilderness at night. As the sun comes up he realizes he cannot be out in the daylight, and retreats into a cave. Baron Korda arrives with his Riders and soldiers to discover the bloodbath at Vlad’s castle and dungeon, but unable to find Turac, Prince Vlad or his son. As they are on the way out of the dungeon, Korda encounters a cloaked gypsy in the castle who informs him she saw Vlad and his son escape into the forest; Baron Korda takes off with his Riders to hunt him down.
Now a vampire, Turac makes it back to his castle in Ankara in the middle of the night, allowed in by his guards who he proceeds to kill. Eilanne, Turac’s daughter manages to hide helplessly as she watches her vampiric father kill her mother and brother, followed by their servants and everyone else, draining them of their blood. After realizing what he had done, Turac swears vengeance on Vlad, which Eilanne hears, and flees the castle.
Vlad notices his new superhuman level of smell, using it to learn of Baron Korda’s group miles before they get anywhere close to him. He starts picking them off silently one by one, until one soldier notices him carrying off his fellow soldier and starts to scream, his cover blown. It doesn’t make much of a difference now, but Vlad starts to use Turac’s spear to kill them by impaling them, deciding to have a little fun with killing them. Baron Korda starts to retreat on horseback as Vlad is easily finishing off the rest of his soldiers and Riders on horses through his spear. He throws the spear towards Baron Korda’s horse, which is at quite a far distance but it still hits it, throwing Korda off the horse. By the time he manages to get himself on his feet, he turns around and Vlad is standing right at him. He grabs him by his throat and speeds towards a tree as fast a blur, slamming Korda into it while still holding him by the throat. With his free hand he sticks Turac’s spear into the ground with the sharp side still facing up, and then throws Korda down on it, impaling him alive.
Episode 10
Vlad has just finished sucking all of Baron Korda’s men dry of their blood, noticing how much more powerful he became with the more blood he drank from them. He hears someone approaching, and comes towards to it, revealed to be the cloaked gypsy from earlier. Vlad wants to be left alone so he brandishes his vampire teeth, hoping to get the woman to run off but is surprised when she bears vampire teeth herself. She removes her cloak, revealing beautiful features. She introduces herself as Lala Viteazul, confessing she sent Korda and his men in his direction as a gift to him. Vlad says he enjoyed the gift but not to expect anything in return from him, as he wants nothing to do with any of them. Lala laughs and says it’s cute he thinks he can go it alone, but that will go away soon enough soon and that if he changes his mind to head to Wundagore Mountain. When Vlad asks how he will find her, Lala says she will find him.
Vlad notices Korda’s corpse is no longer impaled and turns around to be attacked by Turac, who uses the spear to slice Vlad across the chest. Turac is trying to impale Vlad through the heart with his spear, but Vlad is too fast for him, grabbing the spear right out of Turac’s hands. He uses the spear to impale Turac through the shoulder against a tree, a call back to when Turac impaled him the same way as a human. Overcome with anger of being pinned, Turac screams that he made him kill his own family, but Vlad tells him to take responsibility for destroying both of their families. Vlad grabs a sword from one of Korda’s dead soldiers, and says he wonders what will happen when you cut a vampire’s head off. Turac breaks the spear in half and unimpales himself by walking forward with much resistance. Turac dodges Vlad’s swings, managing to grab his arm where he throws Vlad into a tree. Vlad and Turac fight hand to hand for a while until Turac grabs the sword and cuts off Vlad’s hand. Turac over swings the sword and allows Vlad to get in close enough to bite his neck in an unexpected move which gives him the advantage. He grabs him with his one remaining hand and throws him to the ground, grabs what was left of his spear and impales it into his heart, killing Turac. Unsure of his next move, Vlad visits his sleeping infant son in the gypsy’s home, smiling he is about to touch his son with his hand until he notices his bloodied claws, stopping himself. He is heartbroken that he will never have a life with his son, but is pleased with the fact that his lineage would live on and that his fight to avenge them wasn’t for nothing. Vlad is now watching the last few minutes of night outside the cave he hid in previously. Needing something to hold onto and continue fighting for he decides to head to Wundagore Mountain to seek out Lala when the night returned.
Vlad awakens at night with his hand completely grown back, and is on his way to Wundagore Mountain when he realizes his ability to transform into a bat which makes his travel much faster than running at super speed. When he makes it to a valley there, he looks over to see the full moon when Lala appears, saying she knew he would make the right decision. Vlad tells her he has nothing left as a human, and is looking to be guided as a vampire. Lala tells him he will only have to do one thing, pledge his allegiance to Nimrod the First: Lord of the Vampires.
I wanted to show the character in a more sympathetic light and wanted the audience to understand him, because one day he will be the Big Bad of the Blade series, so I thought it would be really neat to see Dracula's story before Blade's so you would have such a different perspective than you may have had if not. His comic origin story is one of my all time favorites so I want it to be witnessed. We would see evolve into the more sinister, selfish, evil character we are used to as the events throughout the rest of the series change him.
Season 2
The main theme of this season would be Dracula finding his new place in the world as a vampire. Nimrod would be dispatched off within the first three episodes and Dracula would emerge as the Lord of the Vampires, but is also warned by Varnae of the Daywalker, a vampire who would one day rise with their gifts, but without their weaknesses (including being able to walk in sunlight) who would one day lead to their race's destruction. Varnae tells Dracula it is his responsibility as Lord of the Vampires to prevent this from happening. The Big Bad of the Season would be Lord Nosferatru, a vampire nearly as old as Varnae who wants to take Dracula's title from him. His sect of vampires require the most vital of human blood however.
Another huge character would be Ulysses Bloodstone, would be used similarly as Punisher was in DDS2, somebody who will duke it out with our protagonist, but at the end of the day will put aside his pride and work alongside Dracula to take down Lord Nosferatu and his sect of vampires, realizing they pose a greater threat to the human race than Dracula does.
There would also be an appearance by Grigori Russoff, showing how the Russoff family got it's curse, setting up not only a Werewolf By Night series but also motivation for why Jack will hate Dracula in the future. Ulysses Bloodstone would be the "Coulson/Claire" of the universe, being the character that will one day bring all these characters together.
Season 3 would take us to late 1800's where he have his infamous run in with Jonathan Harker, Lucy Westerna, Mina Murray, Abraham Van Helsing, Arthur Holmwood, Renfield, Dr. John Seward and Quincy Morris. Because this is the Marvel Dracula we are talking here, I don't think it would come as much of a shock that not all of thesese characters would have the same fates as in the novel. Abraham Van Helsing would also be made into a member of Brotherhood of the Shield, who has killed dozens of vampires and even a Wendigo. I love the modern retcons in the comics and MCU where both SHIELD and HYDRA are kind of like these ancient things that have always had some sort of following even if they had different names. Dracula is his own villain for this season wanting Mina for himself because of her resemblance to his true love Maria, this is when I think the audience would really start to change their opinion of him, and maybe even start rooting for the actual good guys!
Turac's daughter Eilanne and Dracula's daughter Lilith, who were set up in S1, would show up as wildcards who want to help the Novel protagonists destroy Dracula for ruining their lives. We would find out through flashbacks how Eilianne became a black sorceress, sacrificing a boy to the Dark Gods to gain immortality herself and take revenge on Dracula. She was granted eternal youth, but since the Gods considered the payment insufficient, taking her eyesight.
Van Helsing in particular would be conflicted with whether or not to allow them to help, or to destroy them. Instead of being their son like in the comics because of the Blade series taking place in the 2000's, I would have Quincy Harker in the follow up series Blade be either Jonathan and Mina's grandson or great grandson. Rachel Van Helsing will appear in Blade as well.
Season 4 would take place during WW2 with the Big Bad being Baron Blood, who Dracula transforms into a vampire and sends him to London to wreck havok. Baron Blood would get captured and experimented on by the supernatural division of HYDRA and specifically by Japanese scientist Dr. Togu, giving him the ability to walk in the sunlight, which leads Dracula to believe he may be the Daywalker. Of course we know it's Blade, but Dracula doesn't know that. Baron Blood would end up transforming both Dr. Togu and Lily Cromwell (who becomes Baroness Blood) into unique vampires like him.
Let me know what you think below, this is my first ever article! I just wanted to give a brief summary on the future seasons but I feel a show like this would be a refreshing new take with having a villain as the protagonist, and jumping throughout time. If Narcos can make people love Pablo Escobar, then Dracula could easily have the same potential. My goal would be to get people to fall in love with Dracula and root for him to save his race from this seemingly evil Daywalker who will genocide an entire race..... then the Blade series comes out, the audience would do a complete flip, embracing Blade as their vampire hero, wanting him to destroy the vampire race!