With Vampire-Werewolves fantasy drama regaining popularity on the internet, a reboot of HBO fame ‘True Blood’ wouldn’t do any harm.
It’s been six years since HBO called off its most popular show ‘True Blood’. Yes, we are talking about the pre ‘Game of Thrones’ era. The fantasy drama series garnered enormous popularity over the span of seven seasons and left the fans aghast when HBO declared that it was time to wrap things up. Since the trend of reboots has become a common phenomenon lately, it wouldn’t be unwise for ‘True Blood’ fans to hope for the show’s revival. The show revolves around a waitress with telepathic powers, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), who falls in love with a 173-years-old vampire Bill Compton amidst a series of mysterious murders in Bon Temps, Louisiana.
Highlights —
- Why did ‘True Blood’ end?
- Award-winning Hollywood stars who had auditioned for the show
- What happened to ‘True Blood’ after Alan Ball left the show?
Why HBO decided to cancel the show after seven successful seasons?
HBO had a smooth run of 80 fantastic ‘True Blood’ episodes before the television network hinted towards cancelling it six years ago. ‘True Blood’ fans took it to the internet, asking producers whether they would see their favourite characters again.
HBO programming director Michael Lombardo revealed a few details in an interview with THR about why had the network decided to conclude the fantasy drama series in 2014.
“This season (Season 7), ‘True Blood’ is one of the highest-rated shows across the board; it gets over 10 million views an episode”
Claimed Lombardo.
“But the minute you feel you’re airing it for the numbers we start questioning it. Every season we sit down with the creator and say ‘Tell us what the next year will be like’. And if there aren’t exciting, unbelievable, undeniable ideas in the coming season, we’re questioning. And I think in the case of ‘True Blood’, it just felt like we had reached a place where the storytelling was hitting a wall. And to stay just because the ratings were strong felt not who we are and we needed, quite honestly, the money and Sunday night space for new shows”, Added Michael.
A-listers like Benedict Cumberbatch and Jessica Chastain almost played the lead in ‘True Blood’. How crazy is that?
Creator Alan Ball gave HBO a fantasy drama that still remains one of its best hits besides ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Westworld’, and ‘The Sopranos’. Alan shocked fans when he made chilling revelations about who all had auditioned for the lead roles in ‘True Blood’.
While attending the screening of show’s pilot episode at Vulture Festival LA on its tenth anniversary, Ball told that Dr Strange had read for the role of Bill Compton which was eventually played by Stephen Moyer. Golden Globe winner Jessica Chastain had also auditioned for the role of Sookie Stackhouse which was played by Anna Paquin.
‘Hunger Games’ star Jennifer Lawrence, who had auditioned for the role of a were-panther girl (Jason’s love interest) in season three, was turned down as she was only 17 then, and the age gap between her and Jason wouldn’t have been appropriate for the story.
Change of showrunners affected the HBO drama series ‘True Blood’
It goes without saying that Alan Ball should have headed the show till its end. But HBO decided to replace him after season 5 for Mark Hudis. Hudis, who had been a co-executive producer of ‘True Blood’ Season 4, somehow drifted the characters from the original storyline in the book.
Bill Compton became the antagonist in season 5 and fans couldn’t understand why the show had forced such a change after coming this far. Fans who were well versed with ‘The Southern Vampire Mysteries’, on which the show was based, found Amelia, Appius Livius Ocella, Diantha, John Quinn, and Bubba, and several other characters not making it to the on-screen edition.
Charlaine Harris, the writer of ‘The Southern Vampire Mysteries’ series, seemed underwhelmed by the depiction of certain characters towards the end of the show.
“It would have been nice to see a little more of the elves and the faeries, I think. I really liked my version of faeries a lot better, as it turns out. I had a system, a kingdom. They were not so, I don’t know, party animals! They were really different in the books”
Told Charlaine in an interview to Vulture New York.
The series introduced several kinds of supernatural creatures into the episodes such as faeries, werewolves, hybrids, shapeshifters, witches, and fan favourites – the vampires. If there were to be a reboot of ‘True Blood’ on Netflix or HBO, fans would definitely anticipate a better ending for Sookie and Sam. All seven seasons of ‘True Blood’ are available to watch online on Disney+Hotstar.
