By MARK
O’CALLAGHAN
Staff Writer
It looks like Ian Somerhalder is heading back to the vampire genre once again with the show “V-Wars.” The Hollywood Reporter broke the story that Netflix has ordered a straight to series drama based on the novel of the same name by John Maberry.
“V-Wars” will star Somerhalder as Dr. Luther Swan who discovers that a mysterious disease is turning people into vampire-like creatures. His best friend, Michael Fayne gets infected and starts to feed on humans. As the disease spreads, the divide between humans and vampires grow as different fractions start to grow. Now, Dr. Swan is determined to try to find a cure while Fayne becomes the underground leader of the vampires.
“V-Wars” will be ten episodes long with Somerhalder as the main character. He’s the first actor to be announced for the show.
Somerhalder starred in the CW show, “The Vampire Diaries” from 2008 to 2016. He played the vampire Damon that started as a villain and developed into an anti-hero figure. The character was a fan favorite and is considered the fan favorite of the show.
While on the “The Vampire Diaries,” Somerhalder also directed a handful of episodes.
Brad Turner (known for “Human Cargo,” “24,” “Stargate” and “Stargate Atlantis”) will direct the pilot episode and executive produce. William Laurin and Glenn Davis will serve as showrunners. Eric Birnberg and Thomas Walden will executive produce for High Park, with David Ozer and Ted Adams for IDW Entertainment and James Gibb for Marada Pictures. “V-Wars” is produced by High Park in association with IDW.
IDW Entertainment President David Ozer said “We could not have dreamed of a better choice than Ian Somerhalder to bring his keen understanding of this genre from his years of starring in ‘The Vampire Diaries’ to lead the cast of ‘V-Wars’ as Dr. Luther Swann and to be a creative force on this series, as well as to serve as a director this season. We are thrilled to partner with Netflix to bring the multifaceted world that Jonathan Maberry created to audiences worldwide.”
This isn’t the first property to get adapted from IDW. They also have shows on SyFy with “Wynonna Earp” and BBC America with “Holistic Detective.”
CEO of IDW Entertainment Ted Adams said: “We’re very happy to see this deal happen because ‘V-Wars’ is the series that got IDW Entertainment off the ground.”
IDW also shopped around a pilot for “Locke and Key” another adaption from the graphic novel. Recently, Netflix’s streaming rival, Hulu, passed on the pilot. The pilot will still be shipped around to other networks or streaming services like Amazon Prime.
Netflix original programming has gone more expansive with the Marvel shows and Emmy winning shows like “Orange is the New Black” and “Stranger Things.” They’ve spent over 8 million dollars for programming alone. With “V-Wars,” Netflix will now add another show to the ever expanse library they have.
