Ian Somerhalder's 'V Wars' will be closer to 'Van Helsing' and 'The Strain' rather than 'The Vampire Diaries'
Ian Somerhalder has said that his upcoming Netflix series, 'V Wars' is nothing like 'The Vampire Diaries', something his co-stars, Adrian Holmes and Kimberly-Sue Murray have reiterated when they spoke to MEA Worldwide (MEAWW). Somerhalder insists that 'V Wars' is not a supernatural show, and indeed, the show is touted to be a sci-fi horror thriller. But at an age where viewers have been inundated with multiple shows in the vampire genre, will Netflix's 'V Wars' be able to offer something new?
We take a look at what we know about the show and how it stacks up to the previous entries in the genre which include wildly popular shows like 'The Vampire Diaries', 'Van Helsing', and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'.
At the onset, we can tell you that 'V Wars' will be more like 'Van Helsing' than Somerhalder's previous vampire series, 'The Vampire Diaries'. 'V Wars' is based on the comics of the same name by Jonathan Maberry, and readers of the comics will know that the story is as violent as it can get. We don't know how much of this violence will translate onto the screen, but we can tell you that fans can expect something vastly different from 'The Vampire Diaries'.
In 'Van Helsing', there is a human-vampire war going on in a post-apocalyptic setting. The same can be said of 'V Wars', however, the former does not delve deeply into the science of it all and viewers can expect to see more of this in 'V Wars' since here, vampirism is caused by the mutation of a dormant gene due to the release of a virus.
'V Wars' does have more in common with another vampire show that is often missed in conversations -- 'The Strain', based on Academy award-winning director, Guillermo del Toro's book of the same name. In this show, vampirism is caused by a virus -- much like 'V Wars', but the virus in question was developed in a lab, whereas in 'V Wars', the virus was released when the polar ice it was trapped in, melted.
Additionally, in 'The Strain', vampires existed before the release of the virus, however, in 'V Wars', Michael Fayne (played by Adrian Holmes) is the first vampire ever, having been the first one to be exposed to the virus in the story.
Further comparison can be drawn between Dr. Luther Swann (Ian Somerhalder) from 'V Wars' and two characters from 'The Strain' -- Professor Abraham Setrakian and Dr. Ephraim Goodweather. In the comics, Luther is more like Abraham -- a history professor who is an expert on vampires, but in the show, it is likely that Luther will be more like Ephraim -- a CDC scientist -- as the former is working on a cure for vampirism.
But here's where 'V Wars' is markedly different from 'Van Helsing' and 'The Strain'. In the comics, there are various kinds of vampires -- those who are violent and prey on humans, and those who still have their humanity intact and want to live peacefully with humans. 'V Wars' asks the question that if vampirism was caused by a genetic mutation, does that make the affected not humans anymore?
This concept is something viewers would have seen in Somerhalder's 'The Vampire Diaries' and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. On both these shows -- targeted towards young adults -- we have seen vampires like Damon and Stefan Salvatore on the former and Angel and Spike on the latter reconcile their vampirism with their humanity.
One thing that is common in the vampire genre is the concept of "otherness" -- which originated in Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', published in 1897. The eponymous character, Dracula, is portrayed to be "the other", with his differences culturally (being Transylvanian as opposed to the Victorian Jonathan Harker) and racially (vampire as opposed to human) and therefore his transgression of strict Victorian social codes of conduct in the late nineteenth century. Further, Stoker draws a symbolism through the concept of racial purity and how those infected (through blood) become vampires themselves.
These are concepts we have seen remain the same throughout all the shows in the 20th and 21st centuries. However, it looks like 'V Wars' might be digging more deeply into them and explore humanity -- and the issues we face today -- through the story. It is likely that we might see the upcoming Netflix show draw comparisons between the vampire war in the story and the refugee crisis in real life -- which brings both otherness and racism to the forefront.
'V Wars' will be released on Netflix on December 5th.