The Nephilim of Genesis 6 have become a notable motif in popular culture. This interlinks with other similar motifs regarding Christian demons in popular culture.
Film and TV
In episode 114 (17th episode of season 5) of The X-Files entitled All Souls, Dana Scully attempts to save three Nephilim who appear as young girls with several genetic deformations.
In the 2004 British TV series Hex, the main antagonist, Azazeal, is part of the Nephilim and can only show his true demonic form when gaining strength through performing ritual sacrifices with willing participants.
The second and third Prophecy movies deal with fallen angels and one of the Nephilim.
In the 22nd episode of the 8th season of Supernatural (TV series) "Clip Show" a Nephilim is introduced, whose name is Jane. She is called an abomination by the scribe of God, Metatron, and Castiel says that the offspring of a human and an angel is forbidden. Castiel is tasked with killing the Nephilim as one of his trials to close the gates of Heaven.
The film Alien Armageddon (2011) references Nephilim as an invading alien threat, consuming human flesh.
The 2013 movie based on the first book in The Mortal Instruments series, City of Bones, says the angel Raziel mixed his blood in the Mortal Cup with that of a man named Jonathan Shadowhunter and gave it to men to drink. The men became what is known as Shadowhunters, a.k.a. Nephilim, as did their offspring, and their offspring's children.
The 2013 anime Senki Zesshou Symphogear G features a creature dubbed the Nephilim, a living relic that devours other relics to increase its power and transforms into increasingly monstrous forms as it does so.
In the 2014 film Noah, the Nephilim are angels originally entrusted to keep watch over Adam and Eve. After they are expelled from the Garden of Eden, they follow humanity out of sympathy and are fallen due to having disobeyed the Creator, their original bodies of light are driven into the Earth's crust and they are transformed into stone golems, known as the Watchers. However, when they selflessly sacrificed themselves to defend Noah's ark, the Creator freed them from their stone bodies and brought them back to heaven.
In the film The Devil's Tomb, Nephilim are portrayed as corrupted, fallen angels.
In the 2016 TV series Shadowhunters (TV series), a reboot of the 2013 movie City of Bones, the Nephilim will be portrayed as they were in the book series written by Cassandra Clare. Nephilim will be Angel-Human hybrids, who swear to protect the world from demons.
In the pen and paper Nephilim role-playing game, published in four French editions since 1992 by Multisim and in English by Chaosium for its second edition, players depict Nephilim as powerful elemental entities. In the Chaosium version these incarnate into human beings, in a game containing much symbolism, primarily related to the Hermetic tradition.
In the Trading Card Game Magic: The Gathering, the Nephilim are a creature card type found only in the Guildpact card set. They are shown as creatures of often monstrous appearance, created only to display the power of gods, thus humbling the world's inhabitants.
In the Spanish role-playing game Anima: Beyond Fantasy, Nephilim are humans who have the soul of a non-human race as well as some of their characteristics (albeit atenuated).
In White Wolf's Demon: The Fallen, Nephilim are the offspring of demons and humans.
In the video game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, the Nephilim are depicted as semi-humanoid, blob-like creatures that enjoy frolicking through the Tower of Babel. This belies their true nature, as the Nephilim are slowly consuming one another, growing more monstrous and threatening to consume the world. Enoch, the main character, must return the creatures to oblivion by purifying the souls of the Fallen Angels that parented them.
In the video game DmC: Devil May Cry, the protagonist Dante, as well as his brother Vergil, are Nephilim. In this story, Nephilim are portrayed as half-demon, and half-angel.
In the video games Diablo II, Diablo III and associated novels and other fiction, the term Nephalem is used to describe the extremely powerful offspring of Angels and Demons, who inhabited the world which was created by the pairing of a powerful angel and demon, as a sanctuary from the Eternal Conflict.
In Champions Online, Nephilims are half angel and half demon enemies, led by their leader Therakiel
In the post-apocalyptic video game Darksiders and Darksiders II, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (referred to as War, Death, Fury, and Strife) are shown to be Nephilim, derived from the mingled dust of angels and demons, and are the last of their kind after the Nephilim were destroyed by the Horsmen, eons prior to the main storyline, to preserve the balance between the realms of angels, demons and humans. The Nephilim are portrayed as tall, muscular demigods capable of incredible power, such as shapeshifting into giant demons and possessing incredible advanced weaponry.
In the video game series Assassin's Creed, the Nephilim are referred as "The Ones Who Came Before" and creators of the Apple Of Eden. More consistently referred to as the Precursors or the First Civilization, they created anatomically modern humans, and then vanished following a series of unknown events. In Assassin's Creed III the character William Miles quotes Numbers when explaining why it is nearly impossible to communicate with them.
In the video game Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, the main antagonist's main goal is to resurrect the Nephilim called "The Sleeper" in order to gain immortality.
In Guild Wars Factions, "Gavel of the Nephilim" is a weapon that can be chosen as a reward after completing the game's main storyline. The name of this weapon does not refer to any existing character in the game.
In the Exile and Avernum game series, the Nephilim are portrayed as cat-like humanoids with a fierce tribal culture. They are antagonistic to the titular nation in early installments, but become citizens and playable characters later in the series.
Xenosaga features the apparition of a young girl in a white dress by the name of Nephilim.
Nephilim in popular culture Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
