Destiny Fulfilled but the Myth Lives On: Saying Goodbye to Blood of Zeus with Creators Charley & Vlas Parlapanides

The third and final season of Blood of Zeus is now on Netflix! We recently talked with its creators, Charley and Vlas Parlapanides, and discussed the show’s ending and what comes next.

Charley and Vlas Parlapanides are the creators of Blood of Zeus, which, thanks to their Greek heritage and love of Greek culture, was inspired to create Blood of Zeus. The pair previously wrote the story of the 2011 film Immortals, and were the writers of Netflix’s adaptation of Death Note. 

Blood of Zeus was a smash hit when it was released to audiences worldwide, exclusively on Netflix, in October 2020. The show was watched by millions of subscribers worldwide and swiftly earned itself renewals for a second and third season. 

Below, we’ve had a fantastic and detailed discussion with Charley and Vlas Parlapanides about the third and final season Blood of Zeus.

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Now that Blood of Zeus is coming to an end, what do you hope audiences take away from it as a complete story?

Charley: It’s a very good question. There are three things I’ll say, Jacob. I hope that they’re satisfied with it. The arc of the story, the story of two brothers, is kind of the first part of it. We are proud that even in this kind of condensed window, we feel we did the story of Heron and Seraphim justice.  

The second thing is that, you know, we love Greek mythology, and so much of this is kind of inside baseball. But for us, this was a way to create a new myth.

That was the only way we could get this show going. If you know anything about Greek mythology, you know that the Greeks used it to try to understand and explain the world. So, if someone said, “Oh, where does the spider come from?” Or why did the seasons change? They had these long, incredible stories that explained it. And what we do at the end of Blood of Zeus, where we say, “Well, this is why humans have these particular traits.” Well, this is the story.

It came from Heron and Seraphim. This is like a new myth that’s been created. We hope people will take that away. We hope that this will encourage people to dive deeper. We always say this show is not our show; it’s Greece’s show because the mythology is so deep and so rich. We love Greek mythology, and we love Greece.

So we hope audiences will be entertained and satisfied that this story between these two brothers is complete and that this is a new Greek myth now being put out into the world.

Vlas: Yeah, and to piggyback off that, I agree. It’s a great question. What I would say is that I hope that it moved them emotionally in some way. I hope that it made them laugh. I hope that it made them cry. I hope that it just moved them in some way.

As Charlie mentioned, taking them out of their lives for a little bit, for a moment or two, or for a time so that they could forget about whatever they’re dealing with in their day-to-day lives, entertain them, and move them emotionally is one thing I would hope it does. And I believe it does. And then for me, too, to leave them with a good message, but not in a way that’s preachy.

You know, we saw the dangers of anger in season one.  The power of forgiveness, which we saw in season two. And for me, season three, you know, the unselfish love that we’re all capable of for the greater good.

So, it would be to move them emotionally. Then, if we can leave a good message without being preachy and something that can maybe even better their lives in some way, that’s what I hope people come away with, in addition to everything that Charlie said. And we just can’t believe that it’s come to an end. It’s been a while, but it seems like it’s gone by quickly.

Jacob: The themes around the third season are centered around self-sacrifice and the power of where that comes from. It’s not necessarily centered on just one has to die as a hero in the process, it’s even forgiving oneself, like Demeter, where she kind of forgives Hades, and somewhat forgives herself for her own selfishness for how far she went to protect Persephone.

Even Hera overcomes her jealousy by visiting Heron’s mother, seeking an answer from her, and then actually learning how a god as mighty as Zeus falls in love with a mortal woman.

Charley: That’s very perceptive.  We had an older writer who taught us well, and what she said is that a character’s growth and evolution is the story. So, it doesn’t always have to be plot, it’s characters changing and growing that is the story.

One of the things we always said is that if we’re going to unleash Typhon, Kronos, and the other Titans, the idea is that this evil is unleashed when the gods are at their weakest.

They’re divided, fighting amongst themselves, and we would have to see them come back together for them to have any chance of repelling this. For that to happen, they have to work through their issues. Like any family, they have a lot of issues, and in Greek mythology, they’re usually pretty toxic and pretty dysfunctional, but that’s what we love about them.

So, making amends with each other and trying to come together to try and pull this off now that they’re facing this enormous challenge was as much of the story as the journey that Heron and Seraphim were on, who were more on an adventure, and the journey of their relationship and their dynamic.

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Compared to the start of the series, and the relationship between Heron and Seraphim being at odds with each other, in the final season, even when Seraphim is slightly antagonistic, Heron fights his corner through thick and thin all the way to the end.

Vlas: That’s right, and that was always by design to start them off in a place where it was very adversarial, where they hated each other, and then to see them evolve, see that relationship between them grow, and bring it to a place where one was willing to sacrifice his life for the other. 

Charley mentions this often, and I agree with him. When you look at season one, in its totality, and then if you follow it up with season two and three, and if you see them all back to back, you really get to track that arc. That’s something that we’re very proud of, you know, with regards to how it turned out, and how the story plays, in a very satisfying way.

Charley: We always thought it’d be interesting. Heron feels guilty. He was told to see if he could bring Seraphim into the fold, and he only half-heartedly tried to save him. So now he’s like, no, I know what my fate is, I know what has to be done, and I’m going to rise above, and show him, and hopefully inspire him to not break good, but at least readjust, and step up and do, because he knows that the gods are going to need Seraphim to win.

Vlas: And what Charley means by half-heartedly, all at that moment in his life, that’s what Heron could see; he couldn’t see that this is his brother. All he saw was the face of the man who killed his mother. So it was hard for him to let go of that, and that took a while for him to be able to let go of that, and see the man in front of him, and not the face of the man who killed his mother.

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As Heron is the successor to Zeus, and using the same power as his father, it would have been a straightforward road to go down where Heron saves the day, he’s the chosen one, and will be the future leader of the Olympians. But the fact that he did sacrifice himself and become the inspiration for the term hero creates that new mythology.

Charley: Yeah, that’s literally what the word Heron means; it means hero in Greek. So we’re saying this is the story of why that name means hero, and so he is the quintessential hero, but heroes come in different shapes, and we want to twist it a little bit. You always want to surprise the audience a little bit.

Vlas: By that, Charley means we wanted to make it seem as if he is going to be the chosen one, and then we always knew, no, it’s his brother.  So I’m glad that you picked up on that, because we didn’t want to go that altogether conventional, traditional route, as Charley said, we tried to twist it a bit, make it seem like it’s going to be Heron. Still, eventually, it’s Seraphim who is the chosen one.

Jacob: So, was that always the plan for Heron to die? And how about Seraphim? He’s in the Elysium fields with Heron and their mother. Has he also passed on at that point?

Charley: That was always the end. If we went five seasons, that would be the final scene. The idea there is that he’s just visiting, and because the gods are victorious, he’s allowed to go down, but we didn’t, you know, explain that.

The idea was that if this show had continued, that battle with the Titans would have been the opening skirmish or battle, and Cronos would have escaped.

They were going to be a two-season enemy, and Heron would have died in the fourth season to defeat Cronos and Typhon. Then, we had a cool story about where that went with Seraphim for the fifth season, and then he tried to save the world from being destroyed. But when they told us, Hey, we’re going to end here, we said, “Oh, can we still earn this ending?” And we just truncated it, and it all worked out well.  We had to do some reboarding, but as the fates say, sometimes you meet your fate on the road you took to avoid it.

We weren’t planning on ending here, but it ended here, and we think it actually works out pretty well. So we’re very happy with it.

Vlas: To piggyback off that, in the five-season iteration of it, Seraphim would have earned his place in the Elysium Fields. So we did plan to have him there, but because it got truncated, he’s, as Charlie said, visiting, but eventually he was going to be able to earn his way into the Elysium Fields.

Jacob: Now, it’s understandable why you had to try and wrap things up in a neat bow with only eight episodes to work with.

Charley: We wanted to give those characters that win in that moment. We always knew from the end of season one that that would be the end of the show. And we asked, “Oh, can we still earn this moment?” Does it feel merited? And we said we can make it work here. We also wanted to go out on a positive note, on an up note, and a win for all three of them.

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So, what moment from the final season are you both most proud of, either emotionally or from a technical standpoint, from what the show has achieved?

Vlas: I have it. It’s easy for me. It is when Heron sacrifices himself. That’s a moment that I enjoyed because of what it stands for. It’s one of my favorite moments, and then in second and third, I would say the moment where Seraphim gives his brother the Gorgon blood, and we’re not sure if he’s going to die or not, you know, is another one that I like. I also like the scene between Heron and Alexia, you know, before the big battle.

Charley: Yeah, I love all those. I love all those. I would say those are all great moments.

I love when Heron’s running through the fire with Typhon and talking about how, you know, the love you leave stays with you. And that there’s that connection between the underworld and the world above. I love that.

I like it when, in 304, Heron and Seraphim are fighting Typhon, and that’s the first time we kind of start to see them work together. There’s a moment where Typhon has Heron in his hand, and Seraphim throws the Biden. Then Heron hits it with electricity, and the electrified Biden goes through Typhon’s hand, which ends up freeing Heron. 

That’s kind of one of the first big moments where they really work together. I love that kind of combo attack, which uses the parlance of a video game. That’s a great combo attack move. Then I also liked the moment where Kofi sacrificed himself, and, you know, in the Tower of the Winds, that’s just like a great moment. I love that character. I also thought that was like a nice exit for him.

Vlas: Funny, bro.  I was just thinking that. Sometimes I’ll think that, and then Charlie will say, I love, I was thinking that. And that whole little arc that we had for Kofi, Kofi is one of our favorite characters. We always wanted to do a spinoff with Kofi and Ebios-

Charley: Pirates back out on the Mediterranean!

Vlas: Yeah, but we weren’t able to. But I’m so glad that you mentioned it, because I totally agree. I love that moment.

Jacob: What was the fate of Hades children in the end? I don’t think we actually saw their fate?

Charley: You know what, Jacob, we had a scene when Hades gets freed, and we boarded some of it, and he goes and finds his kids. Then, actually, they tilt the reflectors to burn some of the Titans. But we just couldn’t afford to animate it. We had to cut it for time. It would have been a nice moment to see Zagreus and Mellie there. We boarded a couple of scenes that didn’t make it in. In episode 307, we had Heron and Seraphim sneaking by Cerberus, and it was an incredible scene, and Vince boarded it well. And we couldn’t afford to animate that.

There are a couple of moments, and then a couple of other little threads that ended up on the cutting room floor, not because we wanted to cut them, but we can only pay to animate so many scenes. So in the end, you just have to make some choices. But it’s funny that you mentioned it.

I wondered if anyone would ask. It would have been cool to see them help, but mainly because people love the Hades games. I think that’s why some people associate, because those characters are the characters you play as in the Hades games. It’s like a nice little shout-out to them, but it didn’t make it.

Jacob: I suppose it’s the same with Persephone as the last we saw of her, she’s in the soul horn.

Charley: The idea was to reunite them, but then there was no space. We said, okay, well, there was a great painting we saw that depicted the death of Persephone. That’s not really in Greek mythology, but if you think about it, like every spring and summer dies and fades away. So I’m like, ah, maybe we’ll do that. Then we’ll use it to explain why all of us in Greek mythology have the story where men and women were connected as one, and then Zeus split them in half. 

That’s why we always look like, what if we say it’s because Persephone has been separated from Hades? So we just went that way with it. But again, there are threads that we had plans for, but then we just had to kind of wanted to try and tie up as much as we could since this was the end.

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So, what has been the most rewarding or surprising fan reaction from the series as a whole so far?

Vlas: There was a critic we spoke to after the first season, who loved the show, and she shared with us that she had a lot of anger in her life, but after seeing the show, she realized just how destructive that was. And it helped her just let go of her anger. 

That was probably the most rewarding critic slash fan reaction for me. It was really lovely to hear her say that, and we were just so grateful that it helped her even in some small way.

Charley: I’ll say I was surprised how much people love Seraphim and Hades, the kind of more kind of bad boys of the show in many ways. What’s funny is that the guy who made Epic the Musical, a concept album that is more or less Hamilton, but for the Odyssey. Well, we reached out to him, and he loves Seraphim. We love what he did with Epic, the musical. It’s so uplifting and a more optimistic version of the Odyssey. Yet, his favorite character in Blood of Zeus is Seraphim, who is a violent, murdering character who rampages through Greece. I just thought that was funny that, you know, he said that was his favorite character.

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So after Blood of Zeus, do you plan to explore more mythological worlds or are you going to pivot to something entirely new?

Vlas: We love being in the mythological space. We have a Medusa project entirely separate from Blood of Zeus.  It’s its own thing, and we can’t talk about it yet. So just keep an eye out for that. And again, working in the space has been so rewarding. It’s such a rich sandbox. You have monsters, you have heroes, you have antagonists.

So we love playing in this sandbox and hope to continue to do that. In addition to that one, there are a couple of other projects in the mythology space, where Pirates of the Caribbean meets a character that is unique to our world and could be almost like Hercules in some ways. We also have projects in the live-action space. We have an action film that we’re hoping gains some traction. And then we also have a thriller, a horror set on the Jersey Shore that we’re excited about.  And then we have this cool comic that we sold to Heavy Metal. It’s called Ink, and it’s awesome.

Charley: It would be a great animated show. But it’s original, and that’s tough. That’s why we want to do it and establish it first as a comic, do a run of five issues in Heavy Metal.

If you told us that we could choose what we would do, we’d love to do another animated show in Greek mythology. Absolutely. That would be our first choice. But we have to see kind of how things pan out, how the show performs, how season three does.

We’re juggling some live-action stuff, more animated projects, and some comics we’re writing. It’s a very strange time in our business. First, there was COVID, then there were the strikes. Now it’s the end of peak TV, and there’s this huge contraction. So it’s just a very strange time. So we’ll see what pans out and what comes our way, and it’s interesting because when we first did Blood of Zeus, they were excited that we were primarily feature writers. And they’re like, “Oh, this is great. You guys would want to do this?”  We said, absolutely. And now, after the success of Blue-Eyed Samurai, where the writer has been Oscar-nominated, they want you to have more things going on in live action and then come back to animation. And for us, we’re happy just doing animation, but it’s almost like if we get another movie going, that’ll help us get animation going again. So it’s just kind of crazy. 

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Did you enjoy the third and final season of Blood of Zeus? Let us know in the comments below!