Devil May Cry Season 2's James Van Der Beek Tribute Explained
by Rafael Motamayor · /FilmWarning: There are spoilers ahead for "Devil May Cry" Season 2.
"Devil May Cry" returned with Season 2, and fans may have spotted an interesting tribute in the end credits of the first episode.
At the very end of the premiere, titled "The Fallen," a card shows up on screen reading "For My Older Brother, JAMES VAN DER BEEK, 1977-2026." The tribute, of course, is to the late "Dawson's Creek" star who died earlier this year at age 48. Van Der Beek has done voice over work before, appearing in episodes of "Robot Chicken," and doing voice work for the English dub of "Castle in the Sky," but he was not a part of the cast of "Devil May Cry."
Which means this is not a tribute to a member of the "Devil May Cry" cast like we saw in Season 1, when both Kevin Conroy and Tony Todd passed away before the season's release. Instead, it seems it was just a goodbye from the show's creator to a personal friend.
In an interview with What's on Netflix, "Devil May Cry" creator Adi Shankar talked about his friendship with the late actor. This friendship even impacted a particular song choice toward the end of the season. As Shankar tells it, he originally scored a climactic fight scene in the season to Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight." When he showed the animatic to Van Der Beek, the late actor mentioned his wish to use the song for a fight scene in a "Roadhouse" TV show he was developing at the time.
"That made me remove the song from 'Devil May Cry,'" Shankar said. "I wanted him to be able to use the song someday, before he passed earlier this year. I didn't want to take that away from him."
Music is essential to Devil May Cry
As Adi Shankar puts it, he decided not to use a Phil Collins song in "Devil May Cry" in honor of his late friend, James Van Der Beek. He also decided to stick to the show's musical identity.
"I decided I really needed to lean into the nu-metal and not use a super commercial pop culture song in the show," Shankar told What's on Netflix.
Indeed, part of the appeal of "Devil May Cry" is how much it feels like a time capsule to the early '00s. The show is full of nu-metal, punk rock, and emo music from the turn of the century. The ultra-violence resembles '90s movies like "Ninja Scroll," and the general aesthetic screaming PlayStation 2. Shankar once said on Twitter that the show is set "in my memory of the world, pre- and post-9/11" and it shows, specially at the end of Season 1 and the start of this new season.
Season 1 ended not only with a tease of two great villains from the "Devil May Cry" video game franchise, but also with a not-at-all-subtle allegory for the Iraq War. The final scene of the season had the U.S. declaring unprovoked war on Hell and launching missiles and bombs on civilians, the sequence scored to Green Day's "American Idiot."
Season 2 doubled down on the political message, with footage of black site detention centers and torturing of civilians. The on-the-nose commentary, together with the very early 2000s soundtrack gives "Devil May Cry" a unique identity, and helps it stand out amongst other video game adaptations.