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, he’s starring in, executive-producing and directing episodes of “V-Wars”: and one guess what the “V” stands for.
“It’s 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 aren’t 165 years old and there’s 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 show’s themes dovetailed with his interests.
“There’s a lot of social relevance that drew me to this,” he says. “These are the things that we’re 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. He’s a son. He’s 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 wasn’t away from his family for long stretches of time. His wife, actress Nikki Reed (a fellow vampire alum from “Twilight”), plays Luther’s 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, it’s about onus.
“It’s about being able to create a world that’s meaningful to you.”
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