An epic like The Dragon Prince requires a villain of epic proportions, one powerful enough, and intriguing enough, to engage the audience. This is certainly true of the Startouch Elf, Aaravos. Listen to his voice, and you’ll hear a mix of mystery and menace, arrogance and cleverness, sultry and beguiling, rhythm and yes, magic.

To find an actor capable of all those vocal qualities might be challenging. But in fact, the creators of The Dragon Prince already had Erik Todd Dellums in mind before they cast the series.

It began with a TV cop show.

“I saw him on Homicide,” producer Aaron Ehasz says. “He was absolutely brilliant as Luther Mahoney in that role. It was an inspiring role because it was a villain who is absolutely terrifying, but also, has enough hooks into his humanity that you could go, ‘Okay, this is a real guy.’ So the relationship with Luther Mahoney is complicated. I’ll never forget the first time seeing that character in all these great moments in Homicide.

“When we were working on Avatar [The Last Airbender], and we were specifically coming up with this spirit world villain, the Face Stealer, the only person I had in mind was Erik. He was our dream casting. We reached out to him to do this role. And so he did Koh the Face Stealer for us and it was wonderful. The character’s only there for a few minutes, but he’s so memorable and so magnificent. That was my first time working with Erik.

“A few years later when I was at Riot Games, we were working on some characters and trying to get stronger acting. He was the first person I thought of to bring in for a couple of the characters in League of Legends.

“Then came really the big opportunity. As we were creating this show [The Dragon Prince], the voice in my head is not only kind of the omniscient narrator, but also the mysterious, complicated deity-level villain. It just had to be Erik. And so I’m grateful that he has come on this journey with us. Again, he’s the first voice you hear in the series just introducing us to Xadia, and I love the way he says ‘Xadia.’ We slowly eased into meeting Aaravos, this figure behind a mirror and now we’re at the phase of the saga where we’re coming to a deeper understanding with Aaravos, and soon we’ll come face to face with him. So I’m excited for the performances that Erik has done as Aaravos that no one has even seen yet. People are really gonna be shaken. It’s really some great work that you’re gonna experience soon,” Ehasz says.

Only two actors were precast for The Dragon Prince: Erik Todd Dellums, and Jack De Sena as Prince Callum.

“We wrote the part for Jack and for Erik and then we got lucky enough to cast them and use them. It’s been great,” producer Justin Richmondsays.

Prior to recording, actors are given scripts and other information to get them familiar with their character. Aaravos, though, had a story arc encompassing three seasons, eventually seven seasons. Was Dellums told his character’s story arc at the very beginning?

“We told him a little,” Richmond says, “but we gave him broad strokes. Right, Aaron?”

“Yeah, I don’t think we talked about all of the twists that are coming, but we told him the character’s situation,” Ehasz says.

“We were talking very early about the fact that Aaravos walks this fine line between Biblical Satan and mythical Prometheus, that he is this character whose ancient relationship with humanity is complex and open to interpretation. So he knew the important thing early.”

“[Aaravos] has facets that are like Lucifer or Satan, and he has other facets that are like Prometheus, right? So is his knowledge of good and evil a gift or a curse? You tell me. You wish he didn’t have it? We were still in Eden running around eating everything but the apple. I don’t know. Maybe that’d be great for a whole lot of us up there or wherever it is. So yeah, no, there’s definitely influence. We have intentionally drawn from Biblical and mythical sources in some of the construction of this narrative, but not all of it is direct or mapped one to the next. Some of it is a little fuzzier, but we’ve created this narrative mindfully aware of those older narratives, both Biblical and mythical.”

What has Dellums brought to the part that might have influenced the storytelling?

“He has his own reading on the scripts,” Richmond says. “He asks questions, ‘What about this, what about that?’ But also the way he talks and interacts with the other characters. I think he brings his own thing [skill], and that makes a huge difference.”

“Yeah,” Ehasz says. “Even though obviously Aaravos is not human, Erik with his incredible voice and acting skills is able to bring a character to life that is both divine and human in the sense of having vulnerability, something we can relate to. So that’s what’s hard about Aaravos, and that’s what you’ll see more of. He’s both this expansive character that is all powerful, but also with depth and vulnerability that Erik’s able to bring out.”

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Zoom interview, December 7, 2023.Special thanks to Heather Dame and Calvin Nickelson of Atlas Talent The Dragon Prince is currently streaming its fifth season on Netflix, with two more seasons forthcoming.