Actor Nicolas Cage finally gave his spin on the world’s most iconic vampire, Dracula, in this year’s Renfield. Director James Wan (Insidious, Saw, The Conjuring) recently revealed on Instagram that Cage nearly played the bloodsucking Count just over a decade ago.

In 2009, Wan revealed that he was in the early process of adapting Castlevania for the big screen.

Wan told Bloody Disgusting out of SDCC that “I’m very fresh on this project, so it’s early stages and I’m still trying to work things out, but the producers love my vision for it. I’ll be working on the script with a writer to give it a new spin, different to the previous versions. This will have my stamp on it which Konami is very excited about.”

While those plans didn’t pan out, it turns out that Wan always knew Cage had an excellent Dracula performance in him. The filmmaker praised Renfield on social media and revealed that he was in talks with the actor about portraying the vampire for the live-action adaptation. 

So, it seems Dracula was a role Cage was destined to play.

In Renfield, available at home now, “Nicholas Hoult stars as Renfield, the tortured aide to history’s most narcissistic boss, Dracula (Oscar® winner Nicolas Cage).

Renfield is forced to procure his master’s prey and do his every bidding, no matter how debased. But now, after centuries of servitude, Renfield is ready to see if there’s a life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness. If only he can figure out how to end his codependency.”

For his turn as Dracula, Cage previously told us that he drew from a surprising source of inspiration.

“Thankfully, my director liked the idea of using August Coppola as a model for the character, who was this imposing aura when he walked in a room and spoke in a Mid-Atlantic accent and knew he was smarter than everybody else,” Cage said.

Konami’s popular Castlevania video game series began in 1986 and followed the vampire-hunting Belmont clan as they fought through Dracula’s monster-filled castle.

While the live-action adaptation is lost in purgatory, Castlevania at least continues to thrive in animated form.