Vampire series 'V-Wars' is coming to Netflix
Deadline is reporting that Netflix is producing a series version of “V-Wars,” based on a 2012 book by Jonathon Mayberry. The premise is that the melting arctic icecaps release a deadly virus that activates a dormant human gene that causes vampirism. A war breaks out between the infected and the normal humans.
Netflix’s decision suggests that the vampire genre may be making a comeback after having been dormant for several years. Once upon a time, blood suckers were all the rage, with HBO’s “True Blood” and the “Twilight” series of movies. However, vampires eventually fell out of fashion, to be replaced by zombies, with such movies as “World War Z” and, of course, the hit series “The Walking Dead.”
A connection exists between the old and what may be the coming new wave of vampire stories. “V-Wars” is going to star Ian Somerhalder as Dr. Luther Swann. Somerhalder starred in “The Vampire Diaries,” a recently concluded series on the CW as one of two vampire brothers who vie for the affections of a human female. Luther Swann is a scientist whose best friend, Michael Fayne, becomes one of the blood-drinking undead and is thus on opposite sides of the war between human and vampire.
“V-Wars,” which is the first in a book series, is a shared-universe anthology set in the world of the vampire outbreak. Just as with previous stories, both good and bad vampires exist, depending on how the virus affects the victim and his or her original moral compass. Mayberry edited the anthology and wrote one of the stories.
One of the themes of the stories stems from the fact that just about anyone can turn because of the outbreak, family member, friend, or neighbor. How does one deal with the fact that someone beloved and familiar is transformed into an enemy who regard one as food? For the turned, the struggle between holding on to human values and assuaging an insatiable hunger is an acute one.
“True Blood” addressed the problem by creating a synthetic blood drink that allowed ethical vampires to live “out of the coffin” in an uneasy peaceful coexistence with the living. In “Twilight” vampires lived on animal blood or learned to control their appetites so that they did not kill their human sources of food. In “V-Wars” no such easy solution exists. However, like modern vampire stories before, the undead substitute for real-life marginalized populations, with the twist that they are really a danger for human beings,
Further casting information and a drop date for the new series are forthcoming.
