Netflix announced DOTA: Dragon’s Blood out of nowhere, and it got DOTA 2 fans all over the world losing their minds. But social media may be a very noisy but uninformative place. That’s why we gathered everything you need to know about Netflix’s DOTA: Dragon’s Blood in just one place. This includes release dates, trailers, plot, and context.

DOTA: DRAGON’S BLOOD RELEASE DATE: MARCH 25, 2021

DOTA: Dragon’s Blood will arrive at your Netflix screens on March 25, 2021. Prior to that, Netflix will be dropping two more trailers.

On February 19, 2021, a new trailer came out featuring Mirana and Davion prominently. Meanwhile, we also caught glimpses of Invoker and Luna in the trailer, suggesting that the series will be covering more ground than what was initially expected. We also caught glimpse of the dragon Slyrak, and the goddess Selemene, characters that we’ve only heard mention of before in the game but never seen in full until now.

Then finally, the third and final trailer came out on March 2, 2021, showing more details about the animated series. It shows the main conflicts in the story, including the Moon Goddess Selemene, and Knight Davion’s conflict with dragons.

THE STORY

The show’s Netflix blurb reads:

After encounters with a dragon and a princess on her own mission, a Dragon Knight becomes embroiled in events larger than he could have ever imagined.

The mention of a princess clearly points to Mirana, another hero in Dota 2. Based on this blurb and the announcement trailer, we can expect some sort of origin story for the Dragon Knight, Davion. DOTA: Dragon’s Blood may depict the events that led to Davion’s blood mixing with the legendary Eldwurm. Their mixing of blood allows Davion to transform into an Elder Dragon.

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Apart from this, we don’t know a lot about the story yet. We’ll have to pick up more information as tidbits get dropped in the upcoming trailers.

WHO’S WORKING ON DOTA: DRAGON’S BLOOD?

Fans need not worry about the series not sticking true to its source material. Valve has direct involvement with the development of the series, after all. Besides, from what we know so far, it looks like the story will be faithful to the source material. We can infer this from Davion’s official lore in-game:

After years on the trail of a legendary Eldwurm, the skilled dragon-slayer found himself facing a disappointing foe: the dreaded Slyrak had grown ancient and frail, its wings tattered, its few remaining scales stricken with scale-rot, its fangs ground to nubs, and its fire-gouts no more threatening than a pack of wet matchsticks. Seeing no honor to be gained in dragon-murder, the young knight prepared to turn away and leave his old foe to die in peace…  As their blood mingled, Slyrak sent his power out along the Blood Route, offering all its strength and centuries of wisdom to the knight. The dragon’s death sealed their bond, and Dragon Knight was born. The ancient power slumbers in the knight, waking when he calls it; or perhaps it is the Dragon that calls the Knight…

As for the production side of the series, DOTA: Dragon’s Blood is animated by Studio MIR (The Legend of Korra, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, Voltron: Legendary Defender). DOTA: Dragon’s Blood’s showrunner is Ashley Edward Miller (Thor, X-Men: First Class). Looks like a very stacked lineup of people working behind the scenes, so there’s high chance that this show will be great.

DOTA DRAGON’S BLOOD VOICE ACTING CAST

Some well-known voice actors are working for DOTA: Dragon’s Blood. Acting credits just got out, and many fans are excited about Tony Todd’s inclusion on the cast as Slyrak, the elder dragon. Troy Baker has also lent his voice to many iconic video game characters, such as Kanji Tatsumi in Persona 4 and Joel from The Last of Us. Josh Keaton, who played Shiro in Studio MIR’s previous animation Voltron: Legendary Defender, will also be lending his voice in this series.

From other Netflix shows, Yuri Lowenthal, the voice of Alucard from Castlevania will bring the star power up a notch for the show.

CONTEXT FOR THOSE WHO DON’T PLAY DOTA 2

DOTA: Dragon’s Blood will adapt just a small portion of the lore of Dota 2. If you’re unfamiliar, then all you need to know is that Dota 2 is one of the most popular esports titles in the world. It attracts over half a million players daily and is still going strong even after more than a decade in the market. Dota 2 also boasts the highest-ever prize pool in esports, which is given away in its annual premier tournament: The International.

Dota 2 falls under the “Multiplayer Online Battle Arena” genre, otherwise known as MOBA. It’s the same genre as other popular esports titles such as League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Heroes of Newerth.