Why Ian Somerhalder is doing another vampire show – New York Post

Ian Somerhalder is making a lateral career pivot from vampires to more vampires.

Somerhalder, also known for Lost, most recently spent nearly a decade donning fangs to star as Damon Salvatore on bloody hit The Vampire Diaries (2009-2017). Now, hes starring in, executive-producing and directing episodes of V-Wars: and one guess what the V stands for.

Its pretty wild; people are curious as to why would I do [another vampire show], says Somerhalder, 40. But this is a different take. These vampires arent 165 years old and theres no historical aspect. The vampires on Vampire Diaries were sexy and cool and snarky and covered head to toe in [designer] John Varvatos.

V-Wars is very much in the realm of [zombie movie] 28 Days Later, which is one of my favorite stories.

Premiering Thursday on Netflix and based on the comics of the same name, V-Wars is set in a world where a mysterious disease turns people into vampires, dividing society into warring factions. The story follows Dr. Luther Swann (Somerhalder), a scientist trying to save the world as his best friend Michael Fayne (Adrian Holmes, Arrow) is afflicted.

And, since Somerhalder also helms a foundation promoting environmentalism, he says the shows themes dovetailed with his interests.

Theres a lot of social relevance that drew me to this, he says. These are the things that were dealing with in society: borders, disease, fear, the actual politics of fear all things we explore in the show.

And Somerhalder says this role is different enough from Damon Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries to make it all-the-more appealing for him to play. Unlike the snarky Damon on Diaries (which was successful enough to spawn not one but two spinoffs, The Originals and Legacies), Luther Swann is a regular human.

Honestly and I mean this in all humility I think Damon Salvatore is one of the best-written characters in the history of television, he says. But after playing him for so many years, I was so looking forward to playing a guy who was a grounded, good, normal man. Luther Swann wears golf pants to the lab. Hes a son. Hes a devoted husband. To me in society, superheroes are good husbands, great scientists and great parents.

A new parent himself, Somerhalder was able to engineer his time on V-Wars (filmed in Canada) so that he wasnt away from his family for long stretches of time. His wife, actress Nikki Reed (a fellow vampire alum from Twilight), plays Luthers on-screen ex-wife.

This [show] was a big decision because it took us away from home, we had a 9-month-old baby, he says. My wife actually came and did a couple episodes. We got to stay together as a family [during filming].

V-Wars also gave Somerhalder a chance to hone his skills behind the camera, which he began on the last stretch of Diaries. (He was a producer on the final season and directed one episode per season in the final three seasons.)

I want to prove myself as a producer, and hopefully this show does that, he says. The skill set that I acquired being a lead on Vampire Diaries and producing and directing being behind the scenes on knowing and helping a franchise like that live for as long as it did I got to bring that to V-Wars. And I learned a lot over the eight years. Producing is not just about ownership, its about onus.

Its about being able to create a world thats meaningful to you.

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Why Ian Somerhalder is doing another vampire show - New York Post

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero