Heres what we know about Netflixs Dota anime

This was a surprise. On February 16, Valve's Dota 2 Twitter accounted dropped a teaser trailer for a new anime series on Netflix called Dota: Dragon's Blood, premiering in March. A few days later it followed up with a longer look at the series and more details about who's making it. 

Even if you aren't a Dota player, there may be good reason to be excited for this series. The animation studio behind it, Studio Mir, also made The Legend of Korra and Netflix's Voltron reboot.

But how the heck do you adapt a multiplayer game like Dota into a story-driven animated series? If you haven't read a wiki's worth of Dota lore, will you have any idea what's going on? Here's what we know about the plot, characters, and creators of Dota: Dragon's Blood.
Who's making Dota: Dragon's Blood?

The Dota series is created and written by Ashley Edward Miller, who also has credits as a co-writer on the screenplay for the first Thor film in 2011 and X-Men: First Class. Previously he wrote on the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Miller is also executive producer on the Dota series.

In one of many tweets about the series, Miller named some of the other writers working on Dragon's Blood:

    So there’s a lot to talk about this morning and many people who deserve shout outs for bringing DOTA: DRAGON’S BLOOD to life. I’ll start with my awesome writers, @AmyChu @ashleyrhalloran @mitch_iverson @stevenmelching along with @_Unagidon and the tireless support of @ZachRagatz pic.twitter.com/Cmwb8Vo57xFebruary 17, 2021

The name most likely to be familiar to animation fans, though, is Studio Mir, the Korean animation studio behind Korra and Voltron. Studio Mir also worked on The Boondocks season 4, a Guardians of the Galaxy series, and is behind another upcoming Netflix game adaptation: The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.

Mir's series' tend to use a mix of 2D and 3D animation, and that looks like it'll continue with Dota: Dragon's  Blood. From the initial trailer, I have to say it looks pretty nice.
Here's our first good look at Dota: Dragon's Blood

Netflix initially released an extremely short teaser trailer for Dragon's Blood, leaving us with far more questions than answers. But it followed up a few days later with a beefier trailer that shows off some exciting action scenes. Take a look.

Dota: Dragon's Blood premieres March 25

The series is exclusive to Netflix and releases on March 25th. There are eight episodes in the first season.

Will there be a second season? Good question—Netflix likely won't say anything about a second season until Dragon's Blood debuts. But it's not being called a limited series, so a continuation seems likely. 
Which characters are in Dota: Dragon's Blood?

The star of the Netflix series is Dragon Knight, aka Davion, but he's not the only Dota hero in the series. Dragon's Blood is legitimately pulling from Dota lore, here. Mirana, Princess of the Moon, is another key character. Miller tweeted that "the bond that forms between [Davion and Mirana] is the heart and soul of our show." Mirana's companion Luna is also part of the main cast.