Blood Of Zeus: A New Epic

Originally titled Gods and Heroes, Blood Of Zeus was conceived by the brothers Charley and Vlas Parlapanides who had previously written the screenplay for Immortals and the Americanized Death Note movie, neither of which were successful. Since the Immortals film bombed and was about Greek mythology, you’d think they wouldn’t try it again, but somehow they managed to talk Netflix into doing an original animated series inspired by it. This was produced by Powerhouse Animation Studios who had already did the excellent Castlevania adaptation, and it was animated by two South Korean studios, Hanho Heung-Up and Mua Film. It was originally pitched as being a 5-season long project, but because of a low performance only 3 seasons were ultimately created. Season 1 premiered in 2020, with a long break in between until Season 2 came out in 2024, followed by the slightly rushed last season in 2025.

Blood Of Zeus is set during an unknown piece of Greek history taking place during the reign of the Olympian gods after they won their war with the Titans, and then a race of giants that rose from the remains of their carcasses. The gods convinced two of the giants to switch sides, and the Olympians became victorious from it under the rule of Zeus. Zeus spent a lot of his time philandering with human women and spawning several demigods. One of these is Heron, the son of the outcasted Queen Electra who takes refuge in a small town to keep Heron away from the gaze of Zeus’ jealous wife Hera. A race of people referred have eaten the flesh of the fallen giants transforming them into demons lead by Seraphim who it turns out is Heron’s mortal twin brother who was nearly killed as an infant by his greedy uncle. Hera finds out about Heron’s existence and wages a civil war between the gods along with rising the bodies of the fallen giants to back her. Heron has gathered a band of heroes to help him stop the war, even though Seraphim ultimately kills their mother and joins Hera’s side. Zeus sacrifices himself to save Hera during the final battle after the giants turn on her, Heron slays Seraphim and is left to inherit the lightning powers of Zeus.

The second season came out four years later which is something Netflix has a habit of doing when it comes to picking up the next season of some of their series, especially animated ones. This season went more into creation stories than the prior, and explores the wider world that this new mythology is supposed to take place in. Seraphim is given a second life by Hades, lord of the Underworld, who wants to defeat the ruling gods so he can be with his wife Persephone during the whole year and not half of it as she must return to her mother Demeter. Hades sends Seraphim to bring him the Eleusinian Stone which Seraphim can access since it lies in the realm of Gaea, and since he has giant blood in him, he can enter there. It’s also where all the other gods head to claim the Stone and rule Olympus. This is all part of Gaea’s plan to teach the gods forgiveness and has Heron acting as her player in her game. Zeus is locked away in the Underworld during all this, as well as Gorgo, a lost love of Seraphim that Hades promised to free if he obtains the Stone. All the forces clash on Gaea’s island which angers the Earth goddess and declares that none of them are worthy and frees the gigantic Typhon entity who is pretty much the Greek version of Godzilla.

Season 3 came out a year later with Typhon ripping through the Underworld to free Kronos, the father of the Olympians that Zeus had banished centuries ago. Kronos takes over the Underworld and awakens the fallen Titans to help him revert the world back to primordial order. Seraphim forms a truce with Heron if he helps him send Gorgo to the Elysian Fields, but Kronos gets her beforehand and uses her as a bargaining chip against the two brothers. Gaes who set all this up just ditches the scene altogether leaving everyone to fend for themselves and leaving them to their fates. Heron is told by the Fates that his web of destiny has been cut, so this war will be his final act.

Much of the mythology that Blood Of Zeus derives its story elements from is not directly lifted from Greek lore but some secret societies and esoteric institutions. Freemasonry plays a large foundation in the show’s personal world-building, especially with its ties to Egyptian myths. The focus is largely on destiny, and how everyone’s death is inevitable, even though some of the gods manage to come back to life on a regular basis in this take on the pantheon. There is takes on Christian dogma as well with all the resurrection of various divine characters. Nearly every civilized culture had their own theogony, to which Greek myth is essential to as the Greeks would incorporate different cultures and religion into their own world history. Heron is in fact the true hero here, which is where the term hero is supposed to come from as he was willing to give up his own life to help others.

Gaea is the key player in this series, even though she doesn’t become relevant to the story until Season 2. She has Zeus raised in secret to ultimately defeat Kronos as he kept eating all their children because of a prophecy that said his offspring would one day replace him as ruler over the world. This plays into the creation myths of certain histories when obtaining ultimate power, which the Eleusinian Stone is the ultimate prize to get. Most of the mystery schools that Blood Of Zeus borrowed this idea from someone being initiated into each group’s particular beliefs such as the Masons. Gaea ultimately set everything in place hoping the Olympians would learn forgiveness or just letting the world be destroyed to restart everything, even if that meant going back to people dabbling in living sacrifices. This shows that anyone trying to work against a prophecy is usually doomed to succumb to it.

The animation in Blood Of Zeus is not genuinely anime, although its production was inspired by Japanese animation like how both Castlevania TV series were labeled as being under the Netflix Anime brand. The production is gorgeous with literally electrifying effects and each of the characters having their own distinct ability or superpower. There isn’t any major anime that this is derived from, although you will see sparks of Dragonball Z and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, although titles like One Piece and My Hero Academia would appear to be the better sources of influence, but since they’re both more comedic adventures instead of hardcore supernatural battles.

Despite each season getting 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, Blood Of Zeus was cut two seasons short. This comes up a lot during Season 3 with the rushed plot, specifically how early Heron and Seraphim seemed to forgive each other. It does all come together in the end with a climatic duel between the brothers and Krono with the giant Typhon. The series on its own is worth checking out all 24 episodes for, but you can be satisfied with just watching Season 1 which concludes on a good enough note to not require watching the other two seasons.