Netflix Potential: Purgatori

Back in February I did a speculative article on a possible Netflix series based on the CHAOS! Comics character of Lady Death. I had so much fun with that one that I wanted to do another entry and make Netflix Potential another big project. The only problem was that I couldn't decide where to start; until I realized that I already had the next entry selected.

At the end of the Lady Death article I mentioned doing a piece on Purgatori - Lady Death's nemesis - and here we are. Much like the previous entry, we'll be looking at an animated Netflix series.

From CHAOS! Comics to Dynamite Entertainment: Who is Purgatori?

CHAOS! Comics was a company that is probably best known for their horror comics - particularly Lady Death, Evil Ernie and, of course, Purgatori and others. When the company filed for bankruptcy in 2002, the rights to the character were purchased by Devils Due Publishing where the character appeared in a series of stories from 2005 to 2006.

The character was sold again in 2010, this time to Dynamite Entertainment where she's stayed. So who is Purgatori?

Purgatori is an ancient vampire goddess and the arch-nemesis of Lady Death. She got her start in Evil Ernie: Revenge in 1994 and appeared in Lady Death II: Between Heaven and Hell in 1995. Her first solo story was called the Vampyre's Myth and was released in 1996 - it's also one of my personal favorites.

Source Material: A Wide Variety of Stories

There are several stories featuring Purgatori, some stories from the CHAOS! run are:

1. Purgatori: Vampyre's Myth (1996)
2. Purgatori: Dracula Gambit (1997)
3. Purgatori Monthly (1998 - 99)
4. Purgatori: Goddess Rising (1999)
5. Lady Death vs. Purgatori (1999)
6. Purgatori vs. Lady Death (1999)
7. Purgatori vs. Vampirella (2000)
8. Purgatori: Empire (2000)
9. Purgatori vs. Chastity (2000)
10. Untold Tales of Purgatori (2000)

There are several others in the CHAOS! run as well as the reboot from Dynamite Entertainment. I listed ten just to give an idea of what's available. Entries 5 and 6 are one-shot stories where Purgatori goes toe-to-toe with Lady Death, she's survived the end of the world and built a kingdom for herself and even dealt with Dracula at one point! That's a story that I have GOT to read!

Still, with all this source material; we have to have a concrete story for a series. So where do we start?

Ancient Egypt to Hell and Beyond

Most of Purgatori's stories are solo runs but the only real ret-con I can think of is a different origin story between Lady Death II: Between Heaven and Hell and Purgatori: the Vampire's Myth.

So, we have our starting point; Purgatori's origins. I'm going to talk about her origin story according the Vampire's Myth miniseries. So, Purgatori was initially a woman named Sakkara; she was a slave working on the Queen Ostraca's tomb. The queen comes by one day and is smitten with her. The two fall in love and, apparently, get married - like you do.

The marital bliss doesn't last long, however, as Ostraca betrays her lover and marries a general who denounces their marriage (meaning Sakkara and Ostraca) as not being valid. This marriage to the general is a means for the queen to ensure her immortality. It also means that all of the girls in the queen's harem are killed - Sakkara being the last one standing. She escapes and finds an ancient vampire who turns her and she changes her name to Purgatori. She then seeks vengeance against the queen and her new husband.

From here we can sort of transition to her time in hell. In Lady Death II: Between Heaven and Hell, she's depicted as a devil-worshiper who sells her soul and ends up in hell as Lucifer's bride - of course, she mucks it up by trying to drink his blood which doesn't sit too well with the Lord of Lies. She is very harshly punished and when Lucifer is killed goes after Lady Death in retaliation (presumably for ruining her chance at gaining Lucifer's power).

The rest of the series' after Vampire's Myth follow Purgatori's various interactions with people before, during and after Armageddon.

Armageddon, Post-Armageddon and Reboot Stories

I mentioned this during the Netflix Potential piece on Lady Death but most, if not all of the series' featuring Purgatori build towards Armageddon. So, much like with Lady Death, the first season could be the Armageddon story. with the second being the Dark Millennium or Post-Armageddon story.

Alternatively, producers may go with the Dynamite Entertainment Reboot series for the Netflix adaptation - I haven't read that yet so I can't speak about the plot.

There's also another alternative - from CHAOS Comics! - that takes place in a small town not far from Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Now, this is probably the most interesting story since Vampire's Myth and it took place in Purgatori Re-Imagined.

In this one, she's Sarah - a servant girl to a very wealthy noblewoman. Yes, the two are also secretly lovers and, just like in Vampire's Myth, Sarah is betrayed and runs for her life - having been accused of witchcraft. Same sort of deal, she runs into a vampire, becomes Purgatori and wreaks bloody vengeance on those who've wronged her.

Of course, producers may go with an entirely separate story; one with very little to do with the source material. Okay so, with all the possible plots laid out...sort of; let's look at who would play whom in an adaptation.

Casting Purgatori

One advantage to doing an animated series over a live-action series is, and I said this in the last entry as well, that you're casting voices; not faces. So, if we're focusing in on voices; who could play whom? Let's start by assuming that we're adapting Vampire's Myth; cool? Great!

The main characters we need to cast are:

1. Ostraca
2. Ramses
3. Rath (Purgatori's sire)
4. Purgatori

Purgatori - Michelle Pfeiffer

Let's start off with our main character - Purgatori.

Casting a voice for Purgatori, for me at least, was tricky but not impossible. There are hundreds of actresses who could take the role and nail it! With that said, one name kind of stuck out to me: Michelle Pfeiffer.

When I was a kid, I saw a little animated movie called Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas - you may have heard of it. Pfeiffer played Eris, the goddess of chaos and discord and while I didn't know that at the time; her voice always kinda stuck with me.

The character of Purgatori is very different from Eris in that she just wants to gain power; while Eris wants to cause trouble. Her voice is equal parts seductive and menacing; you want to be around her and at the same time you want to run for the hills!

Ostraca - Lena Heady

This was a surprisingly difficult casting choice because Heady could play both Ostraca and Purgatori (not simultaneously) without much difficulty.

Going off of her role as Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones, it's not difficult to imagine Lena Heady in the role of the beautiful and vain Queen Ostraca. It's also not difficult to see her playing Sakkara/Purgatori so you see why this was such a tricky casting choice: which role would be the better one?

Personally, I'd say Ostraca but that's just me. Heady has a great presence on screen and I think she'd be a good fit for the role.

Ramses - Anyone...yes, really

Ramses...okay, of all the characters on this list; this one is the hardest to cast. Why? Well, because he's such a nothing character! He appears just a few times in the Vampire's Myth and chases Sakkara out of the city while trying to kill her. Other than that, he does practically nothing and has no real impact on the story at large - apart from giving Purgatori an extra throat to shred.

He's the literal definition of a token villain character. This makes it so that pretty much anyone could play the role - that's kinda sad really. Idris Elba and Jason Statham are two options for the role. Both men have great on-screen presences and both have the right kind of vocals for the role. Other suggested names include: Val Kilmer, Patrick Stewart, Malcolm McDowell, and, were he still around today, Sir Christopher Lee. Anyone of these men could bring the role of Ramses to life without much difficulty, it's just a pity that the role is so minor.

Rath - Henry Cavill

Wrath is the vampire who sired Purgatori, he's ancient, powerful and clearly very unpleasant. He also has a particular view of Purgatori as 'property' which is just...yeah, a thing. He doesn't appear much in the Vampire's Myth BUT he does appear a few times in other Purgatori-related comics. He could therefore be a recurring character in the series.

Okay, so why Henry Cavill?

This is going to sound a little weird but bear with me. When I read the Vampire's Myth, the character of Wrath seemed to have a very...distinctive 'voice' that is to say I could imagine - albeit roughly - what he sounded like when he talked...I said it was weird.

Now, I watched Cavill in the Witcher on Netflix (great series) a few months ago and wow that was impressive. Picture Geralt of Rivia as an ancient Celtic vampire; make his voice even rougher than it is in the Witcher and voila! You have Wrath!

Final Thoughts: CHAOS! Has More to Offer!

The Netflix Potential project is looking to become another favorite series of mine to do.

Much like with Lady Death, Purgatori has a lot of potential adaptation-wise. Will we ever get an adaptation? I don't know but I kind of doubt it. Unlike the characters from Marvel and DC Comics; Purgatori and the others from CHAOS! Comics are largely unknown outside of a very limited fan base. Still, it would be cool to see.

There are still a few other characters from CHAOS! Comics that I still plan to cover. Admittedly this was much harder than the Lady Death article was but it was a fun piece to do.