Development Development on
Dracula began in June 2017, with
Mark Gatiss and
Steven Moffat reuniting to write the episodes. In October 2018, the series was officially commissioned by the
BBC, to air on
BBC One and
Netflix.
Claes Bang was set to star as the eponymous Dracula in November 2018. According to the writers, Dracula in their version is "the hero of his own story" – the central focus of the narrative and main character, rather than a shadowy villain for more traditional heroes to overcome. As with their TV series
Sherlock, they aimed to make their version of Dracula both faithful and faithless at the same time, taking details from the original novel, adding "a lot of new stuff" [that was not in the novel] and ignoring some passages from it. While the series includes a scene in which it is implied that Dracula and Harker have sex, Moffat has said that it is not correct to describe their interpretation of Dracula as
bisexual: "He's bi-homicidal, it's not the same thing. He's killing them, not dating them." He also added: "He's not actually having sex with anyone. He's drinking their blood."
Casting In February 2019,
John Heffernan,
Dolly Wells,
Joanna Scanlan,
Morfydd Clark and Lujza Richter joined the cast, with Gatiss also set to appear in the series. In April,
Jonathan Aris,
Sacha Dhawan,
Nathan Stewart-Jarrett,
Catherine Schell, Youssef Kerkour and
Clive Russell joined the cast with
Jonny Campbell, Damon Thomas and
Paul McGuigan announced as directors.
Filming Moffat revealed filming on the series had begun on 4 March 2019. Filming took place at
Orava Castle,
Banská Štiavnica and
Zuberec in
Slovakia and at
Bray Studios in
Berkshire. Filming was completed on 1 August 2019. Bray Studios was the home of many
Hammer Film Productions, the studio, having been initiated by the company (famed for its horror films including
Dracula) as their base of productions in the 1950s.
Title sequence The title sequence was made by Peter Anderson Studio. In 2021 it was nominated for a BAFTA at the British Academy Television Craft Awards in the category "Television Craft – Titles & Graphic Identity". ==Release==