True Blood Star Gets Candid About His Character’s Ending 10 Years Later

True Blood star Joe Manganiello offers some blunt thoughts about his character’s fate in the hit fantasy horror series. Based on the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris, HBO’s True Blood ran for seven seasons between 2008 and 2014. Officially joining the cast as the werewolf Alcide Herveaux in True Blood season 3, Manganiello’s character would later be promoted to a series regular until he was unceremoniously killed off early in season 7.

Speaking on Andy Cohen Live (via The Hollywood Reporter), Manganiello reflected on True Blood’s 2014 ending and his character’s disappointing exit. Suggesting that “there was so much left on the table” for his character, he explained that his character’s death was necessary so that Sookie (Anna Paquin) could go on to resolve the lingering plot points with Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Eric (Alexander Skarsgård). He also intimated that he is always looking for another potential werewolf role, as he feels that he has “unfinished business.” Check out his comments below:

I thought there was so much left on the table for me. The thing about it was they never planned for me to be on the show past one season. I was signed up as a guest star my first season, and when my character really broke and people really loved the character, they were kind of unprepared for that to happen. I wound up on the show for five years in total, but my character had to get out of the way so that Sookie could wind up settling the A and B plots with Bill and Eric. The only way to get me out of the way was — spoiler alert — you know, to shoot me in the face. I really felt like there was a lot that was left unexplored.

[I’m] always on the lookout for like a good werewolf script for me because… I feel like there’s a lot in me that was unfinished. I have unfinished business in the werewolf department.

Will True Blood Ever Get A Second Chance At A Proper Ending?

Despite its enduring appeal and strong viewership numbers, True Blood season 7 ultimately proved a disappointment for many fans of the hit show. Beginning with Rutina Wesley’s Tara in episode 1, season 7 would ultimately deliver a series of increasingly shocking character deaths beyond Manganiello’s own. Eventually culminating in Sookie delivering Bill into the arms of the “true death,” countless fan theories about which of Sookie’s assorted love interests would end up at her side were all disproven in favor of a bland and rather generic ending that saw her married to a new and unnamed character.

In 2020, fans of both the show and Harris’ books were excited to learn of a potential True Blood reboot that would have provided viewers with a second chance for a more appropriate ending. However, despite the potential return of original showrunner Alan Ball and the creation of early script drafts, plans for the reboot were eventually scrapped in February 2023 amid a slate of larger cost-cutting measures at Warner Bros. Discovery.

Yet just because HBO is no longer actively developing its True Blood reboot, that does not necessarily discount the possibility of a return to the property at a later point in the future. With previous revelations that the long-gestating Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot is still potentially in the pipeline, it would seem that no project is ever truly dead, especially when it comes to tales of vampires and werewolves. Hopefully, if a True Blood reboot does ever happen, it will serve to give Alcide Herveaux a more fitting ending.

Source: Andy Cohen Live (via THR)