A 'True Blood' Reboot Is Rising From The Grave At HBO
True Blood is being resurrected at HBO. The sexy vampire drama created by Alan Ball — which originally starred Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, and Alexander Skarsgård — is in the early stages of being rebooted for HBO by Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Ball is on board as executive producer.The Hollywood Reporter confirmed TV Line's original report that a True Blood reboot is in the works at HBO, just six years after the original series went off the air. The cable network is in the early stages of developing the new version, which will have Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa at the helm.
Aguirre-Sacasa is set to write a pilot for the new version with Jami O'Brien (AMC's NOS4A2). The duo will executive produce with Ball. The True Blood reboot is being developed under Aguirre-Sacasa's overall deal with True Blood producer Warner Bros. TV, which has led to other remakes of alarmingly recent shows, like the Pretty Little Liars reboot at HBO Max. But Aguirre-Sacasa is finding himself with more time on his hands with the pending end of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina over at Netflix, though Riverdale is still going as strong as ever on The CW, beginning its fifth season in January.
If it seems like it's too soon for a True Blood reboot, that's probably because it is. The series, based on the novels by Charlaine Harris, debuted on HBO in 2008 and ran for seven seasons, wrapping in 2014 — just six years ago! Far too little time has passed to even consider a reboot, let alone one that could offer something new from the original, which was notoriously racy. Aguirre-Sacasa has been known for putting dark, sexy spins on childhood classics like Archie and Sabrina, but could he bring anything new to True Blood, which was far raunchier than anything he's done? I doubt it, but Warner Bros. TV and Ball apparently trust in his vision.
And perhaps HBO wants another bite of the massive success that True Blood enjoyed when it was on the air — peaking at nearly five million same-day viewers per episode in its third and fourth seasons. It was a huge hit, but I wonder if they can recreate that lightning in a bottle. After all, it featured now-big stars like Paquin and Skarsgård, and coming at the tail end of vampire mania begun by the Twilight franchise (and which quickly died out soon after). The TV landscape has changed enormously since 2008, and maybe such a quick True Blood reboot will feel a little bloodless.