After nearly four years away, Netflix’s Blood of Zeus has electrified its way back into our lives with a fiery explosive new season. Nexus Point News was fortunate enough to sit down with show creators Charles and Vlas Parlapanides to talk in depth details and analyze season 2, so let’s dive into it!
(NPN): We observed that Seraphim is a very tragic character in the show. We see it from season one, we see it in season two. He grew up in a different situation than his brother, found [the] love of his life, but instead of wanting to pursue that, he wanted to pursue vengeance because it was something that was burning inside him. He killed his mother unknowingly, and he has been constantly a pawn of the Gods. He’s been used for their own ends and means. It has been putting him in a situation where it pits him and his own brother against each other. Our question is, taking all of this into consideration, is this a part of the reason you wanted to start off a redemption arc for him in this second season? We do see him doing things that are more positive than the first season [where] he actively tries to take a hand in helping, especially the protagonist characters. What’s your view on that [Seraphim’s redemption arc]?
Vlas Parlapanides: You’re spot on! -
Charles Parlapanides: Great question. One thing that I would say is anytime it’s Greek related, it either has to be a comedy or a tragedy, so, of course, Seraphim’s story is suited more for tragedy. There is some Oedipus Rex in his story unknowingly. Instead of killing his father, he unknowingly kills his mother. The great thing when you do a longer format with TV shows, you have more time to explore characters and have their arcs and trajectories cross paths. I think that’s a big part of what you get to see here. The idea is if you do a pure “this is the black hat villain versus the hero with the white hat,” we’ve done a hundred years of movies and TV shows – people know how that’s going to work out. If you can relate to everyone, but they’re really just driven by something that they want, then you’re rooting for them and the conflict is seeing them clash. That’s the idea you’re getting at, and I do think because he [Seraphim] is such a fan favorite that they [the fans] will be cheering for him if he does have an arc that takes him in a slightly different direction going forward.
Vlas Parlapanides: I second all that. It is by design. We have the characters start over here and we want to gradually bring them over here. We want to follow that character arc. We want it to be organic. We want it to be true to the characters, but we want to see multiple layers in that character. In addition to tracking his [Seraphim’s] personal arc, we want to also bridge the divide between the brothers. We want to do it gradually, we want to do it organically. We started where it’s very adversarial and we took steps where we got that divide a little bit smaller. It’s still not what it needs to be, but it’s all by design leading to a place for, god willing, more seasons. [I’m] just really glad that you picked up on that. Everything that you articulated was spot-on. It’s something, as Charlie mentioned, that he’s a character we’ve enjoyed writing because, for us, the most interesting characters are the characters that have multiple layers. We don’t see, as Charlie mentioned, our characters as necessarily evil: We see them as protagonists, antagonists. They have very strong wants. We want the audience to know what those wants are [and] to even empathize with our characters at times where you would feel like “Oh wow. Am I really empathizing with this guy that did these horrible things?” [while] recognizing that they do have some good in them even if those characters don’t recognize it. That journey for us… going from here to there [antagonist to protagonist] is an interesting one, as long as it’s earned and it’s done organically [and] true to the nature to the character. It’s not manipulated by us, or contrived or forced in some way.
Charles Parlapanides: Also, the last thing I will say is that while we kind of pitched our executive at Netflix the idea that we’re going to see the Hades and Persephone story in season two, and that he felt slighted and cheated. This is kind of his opportunity to be reunited with his wife. He [our exec] said “Oh, that’s very cool, but remember this show is really built on these two brothers, on Heron and Seraphim.” We really took that note and feedback to heart. We do a lot of other characters and a lot of other things going on, but at the heart of this story and season one, and still at the heart of season two, is the story of these two brothers. That was always the inspiration going back all the way from taking that Hercules story and flipping it on its head, which is what Blood of Zeus is.
(NPN): Regarding Hera, we see her take a background role this season. Instead of being at the forefront of the conflict, she’s taking a step back. We see her very remorseful of her ways in Season one and now she’s trying to be the central voice of reason. In the final episode, she’s also the one who attempts to intervene between the battle, which is a big contrast to season one. [In season one] where we see Hera gung ho, coming into battle, she’s ready for this huge conflict with the Gods, but now she’s like “listen, I’ve been there, and it’s not going to get you what you think you want.” The desire that they believe in and the conflict that you want is not going to have a winner. Did you guys want Hera to have that redemption arc this season where she learns the consequences of her ways following Zeus’ sacrifice?
Vlas Parlapanides: You really watch these closely! That’s really impressive. You could teach a class, I feel. That’s just very impressive and very well said. What I would say, and I’m curious what Charlie says, adversity has a way of humbling. What she went through in season one, she was going through a tremendous amount of adversity - she had her arm cut off. What we hoped is that it humbled her in some way. It allowed her to look at things and reflect and take everything in its totality. She realized, what you had said, that it doesn’t work this way and it’s not going to work this way, blood against blood. She is exactly everything that you just articulated and that came from a place of… she went down this rabbit hole and realized that that’s not the way to get what she wants. She definitely pivots and feels humbled a bit. She still needs more humbling, but she’s humbled a bit. That’s definitely, again, by design.
Charles Parlapanides: In mythology, she was known as being very fair and just, [but] she always had this weak spot. She’s trying to kill Hercules, she tries to kill Apollo and Artemis, she’s always trying to kill these bastard children of Zeus. That’s her blind spot. That’s her one weakness. It’s something that we’d talked a lot about with our season one director, Shawn, where he was asking “So, does she go fully on tilt? Will she just lose it?”. He felt that it would be good if she did, because then she goes too far. In some ways, that can be tragic. Is it okay? Yes. Have her go full tilt. She just loses it. She’s going in with blind rage. Then, we don’t want her to just be this one-known character, especially since she’s described as wise and just. She lost it, understandably so, she has good reason. Ares even says it. She’s normally very fair, but because Zeus was such a bastard. She lost it, but now she’s this enforcer to reexamine everything and she doesn’t want to continue going down this route. That, for us, is a way to make sure she’s not just a one-known character and we can do justice to some of the stories that are told about her while not neglecting the fact that she always tries to kill every kid Zeus had outside his wedlock in mythology.
Vlas Parlapanides: With jealousy, that’s the beauty of the Gods. They share many of the characteristics that we have. Jealousy is her weak spot; That just gets her enraged, she puts the blinders on, and I think that’s relatable. I think people can understand that, but you can also grow. It’s important as a person to always recognize your faults and to try to become a better person. She’s trying to grow and become a better God. Goddess, excuse me. There’s definitely a character component to it. We want to try to make her as multi-layered as we can. We love shows where you see characters start on this side and then they make allegiances with other characters… I don’t want to spoil anything, maybe that they were fighting earlier in that first season. Like Game of Thrones, even when you see Jaime Lannister when you first really don’t like him. As the story goes on, you go “Oh, I kind of like that character. I empathize with him.” Then, he switches “sides” and we always thought that was interesting. It was something that we would like to try to do, if we can, with some of these characters without spoiling anything.
Charles Parlapanides: It’s also tradition in ancient Greek culture, going back to ancient Athens, where each citizen had a jar. If you didn’t like someone, you could put a chip or stone in their jar. If they accumulated say 30 [or] 50 chips, they would be banished for several years. It even happened to the Mysticalise who was their general who led them three-against-one against the Persians attack. We like this idea of someone - they’ve done wrong, they can be banished. She willingly accepts that and is willing to walk away, but she wants to try and make amends for what she’d done and what has happened.
(NPN): I like that. I love one thing that you guys really did is depict the Gods as someone who even though they were seen as these higher figures, they have all the personality traits as a regular human. They make their mistakes, big mistakes, and these mistakes -
Charles Parlapanides: They can be petty!
(NPN): Yeah! They can be petty. I love that depiction of them because it’s very true to the source.
(NPN): In regards to callbacks: we see many different callbacks throughout the season, not only in Greek mythology, but possibly to other media as well. It was interesting to see some of those consequences of the famous Greek myths played out as Hades was flying through. That was very interesting to see the one with prometheus and his liver. I love that attention to detail because it was giving fans a little glimpse into famously known myths. When Hades was speaking with Seraphim, there was a part that rang in my ear like maybe it is [a callback] that, and I wanted to ask you about. When Hades is telling the tale of what happened when he says “for all of them were deceived.” Was that a line callback to Lord of the Rings in the prologue?
(NPN): Was that something that was intentional?
Charles Parlapanides: We love the trilogy, the books, all of it. At least once a month, I’ll watch that opening prologue of Lord of the Rings. When the Australian actress -
Vlas Parlapanides and (NPN): Cate Blanchett.
Charles Parlapanides: When she says “for all of them were deceived,” I loved that.
(NPN): I’m glad that I picked up on that, it’s perfect!
Charles Parlapanides: A little shoutout!
(NPN): Yeah, a little shoutout.
Charles Parlapanides: Showing some love to something that I love.
Vlas Parlapanides: DId we mention you watch very closely, my goodness. It’s fantastic! Yeah, that’s a little tip of the hat. We love Lord of the RIngs, it was a huge influence. Tolkien’s a huge influence. Game of Thrones is a huge influence. There’s something when you watch Lord of the Rings where you’re brought into a world and you’re engaged and you go on this journey. It’s so much fun. We love watching those films in the theater. They had a big influence on us, absolutely.
(NPN): It’s really great to hear that. I’m glad that my catch was right.
Charles Parlapanides: Your silver sense was spot on.
Vlas Parlapanides: You’re the only one that’s caught that by the way.
(NPN): That’s crazy. There was another one with the connection at the end. I made the connection with cordyceps. I was just wondering if that was a connection to The Last of Us series/game?
Charles Parlapanides: You know what’s funny: I’ve played the game, I know that’s a big part of it. My daughter was in middle school at the time and she was doing a biology unit. They had that and they sent the video of the cordyceps and how the fungi would take over them. We thought “what about their power can we give Demeter?” There’s only so many times Persephone can have branches and roots come out of the ground. What if she can do almost chemical warfare, and this is biological warfare. It is indeed - you know, that [series] hadn’t come out while we were writing that. Obviously the game I’ve played before then. That was funny. When I saw the pilot of The Last of Us and they were having those scientists discuss it, I was like “Oh my God, this is too perfect! What a great job by Craig Mazin to tackle that into that show.” I think it’s just another little layer of things that we find interesting. That’s what always happens: you take things that you find interesting that you feel might fit and you keep feeding the machine with it.
(NPN): For Hades and Persephone now; moving into their love story. We see that they have a very tragic love story, but they also seem to hunger for power by ruling the Gods. I love the fact that you took the Greek myth of Hades kidnapping Persephone and turned it right on its head. Not only were the Gods deceived, but the audience was as well this whole time in your version.
Charles Parlapanides: You’re spot on.
(NPN): Not only were they deceived, but it has tricked everyone in the process and now we finally get this revelation that “no, they had a true and genuine love.” We get to see that side of Hades as a character.
Vlas Parlapanides: Are you, like, a professor? Are you, like, a teacher or something like that?
(NPN): [Laughs]
Vlas Parlapanides: Honestly, that is perfect!
(NPN): I like to watch and study media very critically.
Vlas Parlapanides: That’s perfect. That’s exactly it.
Charles Parlapanides: Can we use your answer for other interviews?
Vlas Parlapanides: [Laughs] that’s exactly it. I couldn’t articulate that any better. The other day, I was trying to and I fumbled. I should’ve just said what you said!
Charles Parlapanides: It’s absolutely spot on. That was Vlas’ idea. I’ll add that Zeus and Hera had the most toxic relationship ever. A really toxic relationship. We wanted Hades and Persephone to almost be the antithesis of that. We would talk about the first few seasons of House of Cards where the Underwood’s love each other, work together, plot together, and them having a healthier relationship. Truthfully, when you’re adapting something that’s thousands of years old, to say that Hades kidnapped her is even the PG version. It’s worse than that. We didn’t want to do that. Vlas had the idea of “what if they’re really in love?” Being raised Greek, there’s a lot of overbearing mothers in the Greek community. Every Greek family will tell you that they want you to marry this person or that person. What if Demeter was this overbearing mother who didn’t want Hades and didn’t want her daughter to be in the Underworld? What we try to do is take the myth, look at it, and then break it down and make it an emotional reaction. So, because her daughter can’t be there, she makes the world suffer for six months and have a miserable winter. That’s a pretty spiteful person. I know it sucks, but you’re going to make the whole world suffer? If she’s willing to do that, then maybe she’s a little bougie in what she wanted and how she wanted it to go. She was a little overbearing, so why not have it be a love story where they love each other but the Mom doesn’t want it? When it does happen, she punishes the world and she spreads rumors about her son-in-law - even though that’s her brother, which is a little weird. That’s just Greek mythology.
Vlas Parlapanides: What I would add to it too, for someone who is as smart as you are and knows the Greek mythological tales, can appreciate what we just did there. What we found out from season one, there are people that are really seeped into the mythological tales and know the nuances of those tales. They appreciate it when we take it and spin it a little bit. For those who are not familiar with them, the story works for them. The story works for both sets of audiences. What I would also add that touches upon Seraphim’s journey as well, you empathize with Hades because his family is torn apart. He wants to stop that suffering. He doesn’t want that. Imagine your family is torn apart year after year for all eternity? The question becomes how far is too far? Of course we’re going to try and protect our loved ones. Of course we’re going to protect our families. It reaches a point where you have to decide if what you’re doing is taking things a step too far. That’s something we wanted to explore. For Seraphim, he feels guilty about what happened to the Priestess and he wants to undo a wrong that he made that fateful night. He wishes he could go back and maybe meet up with her. Maybe he wouldn’t become the monster that he is. Of course we want to help our loved ones. The question becomes how far can we go? How much will he sacrifice? How far is too far?
(NPN): Speaking of Seraphim, I had an observation that I wanted to ask about. When he calls himself Icarus as his fake name, I felt like that was really fitting to his whole character because Icarus is someone who flew too close to the sun and got burned. Seraphim is someone who has gathered all this power, all this strength, and in the end quote on quote “got burned.” His ambitions grew too large to handle.
Charles Parlapanides: You don’t miss a thing!
(NPN): I really felt like there was a strong connection with the fake name and his arc and his story.
Charles Parlapanides: He has definitely been flying too close to the sun, that was the idea. That’s awesome, wow. Sometimes as writers, you talk about stuff and you think nobody’s going to understand this and that we’re overthinking it. Then someone catches it and it’s nice.
Charles Parlapanides: Honestly, with Greek mythology, one thing we found is that everyone has read Percy Jackson. Those books have helped our show tremendously. What got you into Greek mythology if you don’t mind me asking. I’m just so surprised.
(NPN): I’ve never actually read Percy Jackson. For a lot of years now, I’ve been a very big fan of Greek mythology. I don’t want to say that I’m an expert and that I know everything, but I definitely know a lot.
Charles Parlapanides: You have an affinity for it.
(NPN): I wanted to speak about Hades and Demeter. Hades is given this role this season where you see these stories about him aren’t true. In my opinion, Hades was the protagonist of this season, even though he had to do what he had to do in some cases. He’s not only in the spotlight, but his actions are as well. If we’re looking at it in a critical lens, he’s not doing anything that’s overtly evil. He’s calling out Zeus for his mistakes and he’s putting him on trial for that. He put Seraphim on trial. These are fair trials, it’s not like he’s trying to manipulate things too much. His drive, at the end of the day, is for his family. We get to see a brief glimpse of their children together and it really drives home that Hades is a man who’s hurt. Hades has been scarred, left out of the conversation, burned by his own family, banished to Hell to rule. I can have a little sympathy for this guy! He’s not doing anything that’s inherently evil. Then you have Demeter, on the other hand, where her drives are her daughter and her selfishness. She’s pushing her evil directly on innocent people and completely upending their lives. Those two are two different sides of the same coin that have been completely flipped from how we usually know them. Can you talk a little about that?
Vlas Parlapanides: I love that. Again, we’ve done a bunch of interviews now for season one and now this season. You’re by far the most astute. Wow, just really, really well done. You have great questions and great observations. They’re very insightful. You just encapsulated exactly what we were trying to do. You said it in your own words. One thing as we’ve been doing this, and as we’ve been thinking about it, is that we also love this idea of antagonists [and] protagonists. I love introducing characters like Demeter and Seraphim that have a very strong point of view. Her [Demeter’s] actions, in this season, are very selfish. I’ve even shared this with Charlie that I want to capture why does she feel that way. Why is she so guarded with her daughter? Are there more layers to her? That would be something that we would love to explore god willingly if we get more seasons. You articulated that beautifully in terms of Hades doing what he’s doing for the reasons you mentioned. You [want to] empathize with it, you really do. We listen to the fans. We listen to the critics. We say “that was valid” when they say this, or “that was valid” when they say that. One of the things Charlie cites that we got repeatedly was “don’t make Hades the mustache-twirling, evil bad guy as he’s been depicted in the media.”
Charles Parlapanides: Lots of other media.
Vlas Parlapanides: Yeah. It was very important for us to do exactly what you encapsulated. [We’re] just really making it clear that this is Hades’ story and we kept asking what if. What if he was betrayed by Hera and Zeus? What if he’s really doing this because he really loves Persephone? What if he’s doing this because he wants to protect his family from suffering that they’re enduring? Slowly, that kind of morphed and became his story. We’re glad, so far, that Hades is one of the most… is probably the favorite character so far of everyone that has seen season two. The way you described that interpersonal relationship between Demeter and Hades is spot on.
Charles Parlapanides: We were just hoping that people would be willing to go on this journey with Hades. We thought that he was really cool. Even if you go back to the guys that created all the DC Comics, they said that the inspiration was the three brothers from Greek mythology. Zeus, who was always described as the most powerful of all the gods, that was Superman. Aquaman was obviously Poseidon. Then they said Batman was Hades. For us, of those three, Batman was always our favorite. We’ve always loved this idea of Hades in this realm. A lot of the ancient texts described him as being very wealthy, but also very lonely because his wife would always have to leave. For us, that is a cool character. We like the idea that one guy gets the Heavens while the other guy gets the ocean. The third guy is made a prison warden, and that sucks. These other guys are surfing and hanging out in the clouds while you’re seeing people get tortured and punished for the wrongs that they’ve done. For us, he’s a tortured soul. We’re rooting for that guy to be honest with you.
(NPN): I love that. I love Batman too. He’s my favorite superhero by far.
Charles Parlapanides: Batman? You’ve got good taste!
(NPN): In a potential season three, are you guys going to have it fall over an all out war that’s being hinted at and prophesied? What is the direction with Typhon being released now?
Vlas Parlapanides: That’s a great question.
Charles Parlapanides: I don’t know what we can and can’t say, but there’s a reason why in episode 7 that you see Kronos, who is the leader of the Titans. What do you think? What can we say?Vlas Parlapanides: I don’t know! I think what you’re saying is very good. There’s a reason why you see Kronos. There’s an introduction there. There’s, obviously, a reason why you see Typhon. Just imagine if the Gods are split, divided is a better word. Imagine if the Gods are divided. Imagine if Kronos and Typhon were to team up. Imagine if Kronos, Typhon, and the rest of the Titans were all to get together and the Gods were divided. One would have to think the only way that they could possibly overcome all of that would be for them to come together.
Vlas Parlapanides: The Gods are like the fingers. They’re strong, but when they’re together like that, they make a fist. They’re that much stronger. Maybe it’ll go down that road, I don’t know. What I can tell you is that god willing, if we get enough people to watch season two and it does well, is that there won’t be a three and a half year stretch. We’ll have season three by -
Charles Parlapanides: In less than a year.
Vlas Parlapanides: In less than a year, that’s the good news. The other thing: we’re begging people to please season two. Watch it in the first ten days and the first month because if it does well, Netflix will greenlight our Medusa animated show.
Charles Parlapanides: That’s an awesome story! I would cut off my pinkies to make that show, if I’m being honest. I just hope people show up and watch because that would be super, super cool.
(NPN): I’m hoping! I’m a very, very big Medusa enthusiast.
(NPN): As our final question today, whose character would you say that you are most excited for fans to see and experience during this second season of Blood of Zeus?
Vlas Parlapanides: That’s actually an easy one for me, like Charlie said: it’s Hades. I’m excited for them to get to know the character and get to see a Hades that, we feel, hasn’t been depicted in media before. This is an original take for him and his character arc and journey. The close second would be what we do with Seraphim. For the reasons you’ve mentioned, to see where we’re bringing him down a route that leads to redemption, god willingly, [if we get a third season].
Charles Parlapanides: I agree. For me, it’s Hades and Seraphim. I really love the Hades and Persephone storyline. For me, I’m most excited about that. People seem to be really responding to it well. At least critics and you hope that the audiences do as well because it’s like that old saying Steven Spielberg said: you don’t know what you have until the audience tells you. We hope that people will like it! We like it. We think it’s cool. It seems like you liked it as well. We hope other people feel that way too.
(NPN): Yeah, I hope so as well. This was a great interview. I really, really loved talking to you guys and just discussing everything to do with Greek mythology, this show, [and] other callbacks.
Charles Parlapanides: You’re very perceptive. Very perceptive. The pleasure was ours.
Vlas Parlapanides: The sentiments are mutual. Thank you so much for really watching it carefully and coming in with smart questions. It’s the most insightful interview we’ve had.
(NPN): Thank you. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for supporting us and the fans and people who do things like this. It really does mean a lot when creators take time out of their busy schedule to connect with us.
Vlas Parlapanides: We thank you guys. You guys help and give this stuff to the fans. Without the fans, there is no show!
Charles Parlapanides: We wouldn’t have a job!
Vlas Parlapanides: We wouldn’t have a job! We’re grateful to you and we’re grateful to the fans because you make the fans happy. We need the fans to be happy, and the fans need to hear about the show. They need to tune in so that there could be a show. So, thank you.
Netflix’s Blood of Zeus is now streaming! Follow @NexusPointNews for the latest updates in entertainment.
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