‘I thought there was much more in it for me’: a ‘True Blood’ star is so dissatisfied about his end in the cult series

From 2008 to 2014, the HBO series “True Blood” enjoyed great popularity. Based on the novels by Charlaine Harris, the fantasy-horror format managed to draw the masses to the screens for seven seasons, even if the final season left many fans with a feeling of disappointment. But it wasn’t just the fans who expected more from the grand finale, also the actors of Alcide Herveaux Joe Manganiello (“Magic Mike XXL”) had hoped for a different ending.

Manganiello was introduced in season 3 of True Blood. He was originally only supposed to play a supporting role, but after becoming one of the most popular characters in the series, his role expanded. Manganiello recently attended as a guest and talked about his character’s very disappointing departure at the beginning of the seventh season:

Joe Manganiello hoped for more

“I thought there was a lot more in it for me. The thing was, they never planned for me to be on the show for more than one season. I was signed on as a guest star, but people started loving the character. The makers were somehow not prepared for this to happen.”

Real blood

Starting date
07-09-2008
|
52 minutes

Series:
Real blood

Of
Anna Paquin,
Stefan Moyer,
Ryan Kwanten

User rating

4.0

On power

Without revealing too much, werewolf Alcide Herveaux abruptly and suddenly disappears from the series. Manganiello also has an explanation for this: “I was on the show for a total of five years, but my character had to be taken out of the way so that Sookie could figure out Bill and Eric’s storylines at the end..[…Ireallyhadthefeelingthattherewasstillalotleftunexploredaboutmycharacter[…IchhattewirklichdasGefühldassesnochvielUnerforschtesübermeineFigurgab“[…Ikhadechthetgevoeldaternogveelonontgonnenwasovermijnkarakter[…IchhattewirklichdasGefühldassesnochvielUnerforschtesübermeineFigurgab“

In 2020, there was talk of a ‘True Blood’ reboot, which obviously had to raise hopes that Alicde Herveaux would finally get a more fitting ending. However, the plans have now been scrapped. Manganiello would still like to play a werewolf, as he revealed to Andy Cohen: “I’m always looking for a good werewolf script for myself. I feel like there’s still a lot unfinished inside me. I still have unfinished business in the werewolf department.