Television series

Blood of Zeus

Name: Blood of Zeus
Genre: Action, Anime, Fantasy
Released: 2020
Cast: Derek Phillips, Elias Toufexis, Jessica Henwick, Claudia Christian, Jason O'Mara

Netflix's Blood of Zeus is a lush, brutal slab of Greek mythology animated by the studio behind Castlevania. A cast-off young man discovers he's Zeus's illegitimate son and gets pulled into a war between Olympus and the underworld. It's gorgeous, gory, and surprisingly earnest — myth with muscle, made for anime fans who want their gods to bleed.

TVMaze rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love mythology retold as a blood-soaked, swaggering adventure, with Greek gods behaving like squabbling, dangerous royalty and a hero who fights his way through the chaos.

Skip it if you want slow, quiet character drama, since this is mostly spectacle, with action set pieces doing most of the talking and the pace rarely easing off.

What it asks of you: Short episodes, about half an hour each, that stack up across three seasons, so it asks for a steady evening habit rather than one marathon sitting.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Castlevania2017

Same animation studio, same appetite for gore and gothic melodrama, just swap Olympus for Wallachia and Hades for Dracula. This is where that visual language was forged.

But Vampires and castles instead of gods and temples — the mythology is invented, not inherited, so it lands differently.

Hercules1997

The same pantheon played for warmth and song instead of blood. A gentle reminder that Zeus's family drama has always been ridiculous as well as tragic.

But Disney-bright and family-friendly — none of the brutality or moral murk that makes Blood of Zeus interesting.

Immortals2011

Tarsem Singh's fever-dream take on Greek myth, all oiled muscle and painterly slow-motion violence — the live-action cousin of the show's visual excess.

But Style over substance — the plot is thin and the acting stiff, so go in purely for spectacle.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Blood of Zeus

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Kaos2024

The exact same Olympian dysfunction — Zeus, Hera, jealous gods meddling in mortal lives — proving the myths are elastic enough to be funny, strange, and modern instead of bloody and mythic.

Jeff Goldblum's Zeus is paranoid, petty, and running Olympus like a man mid-life-crisis. Same gods, same family dysfunction, but played as pitch-black domestic comedy.

But Cancelled after one season, so there's no resolution — and comedy-drama is a very different register from action anime.

3002007

Stylized, blood-soaked ancient Greek violence rendered as comic-book opera. If the show's fight scenes got your pulse up, this is where that aesthetic was perfected.

But Spartans versus Persians, not gods versus monsters — no mythology here, just brutal history-adjacent spectacle.

Clash of the Titans1981

Another mortal son of Zeus wages his own war against monsters and vengeful deities. Big, dumb, satisfying fun with the same family of gods.

But Critically maligned for a reason — the CGI has aged oddly and the script is thin.

Vinland Saga2019

Different mythology, different continent, same engine: a young man shaped by violence and a father's shadow, wrestling with what kind of man he'll become.

But Slower and more meditative, and Norse rather than Greek — it asks for patience before the payoff arrives.

Arcane: League of Legends2021

Gorgeous, big-budget animation with real stakes and family betrayal at its core — proof adult animated fantasy can be prestige television, not just genre filler.

But No mythology here — it's a video game adaptation, sci-fantasy rather than ancient gods.

The Legend of Korra2012

A demigod-adjacent hero navigating political war between spiritual forces and mortal factions, with animation that treats action choreography as seriously as character work.

But Originally aimed at a younger audience, so it's less graphic and less morally grim overall.

Berserk1997

For when you want the genre pushed to its darkest extreme — a mercenary's journey through betrayal, demons, and cosmic cruelty that makes Blood of Zeus look restrained.

But Genuinely brutal and bleak, with sexual violence and gore that go far beyond anything in the show.

Jason and the Argonauts1963

Same mythic engine — gods manipulating a mortal hero as a pawn in their own squabbles — rendered in the stop-motion effects that invented this entire visual grammar decades before CGI existed.

Before CGI gods and demons, there was Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion bringing skeleton armies and bronze giants to life. It's the technical and mythological ancestor of everything the show is doing.

But The pacing and effects are of their era — charming rather than thrilling by modern standards, with stiff acting throughout.

Ulysses 311981

A French-Japanese animated series that took Homer's Odyssey and launched it into space — the same appetite for turning Greek myth into serialized adventure animation, just decades earlier and aimed at children.

Greek myth reimagined as 1980s sci-fi anime, with Ulysses cursed by the gods and wandering the stars instead of the seas. Strange, haunting, and a genuine cult classic.

But It's a kids' show from 1981 — the animation is dated and the tone far gentler than anything in Blood of Zeus.