Nina Dobrev as Elena and Paul Wesley as Stefan from The Vampire Diaries.
(The CW)

Paul Wesley is ready to take a vampire bite once more

Once a vampire, always a vampire. Unless you are Alaric Saltzman from The Vampire Diaries, that is. Paul Wesley, who played Stefan Salvatore in the same show, seems unable to escape his calling. The actor is producing a new, (as yet) untitled, vampire series.

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Wesley rose to fame through the popular vampire series The Vampire Diaries, playing one of the lead roles. The series came out in 2009, when vampires ruled the cultural zeitgeist, with Twilight having landed in theatres in 2008 along with True Blood starting over on HBO. Since then, the love for vampires has died down somewhat, though with films such as the 2024 remake of Nosferatu causing a stir, perhaps the genre can make a comeback.

Wesley must certainly think so, having attached himself to this upcoming project. The series, which has landed at Fox for development, centers on a 25-year-old vampire “who struggles with running the family business for his murderous and suffocating vampire parents while trying to chase his dream of becoming an actor,” per Deadline. This is a refreshing change of pace from the usual centuries-old vampires viewers are introduced to.

It is written by Victor Fresco (Unstable, Santa Clarita Diet) and directed by Liz Friedlander (The Rookie, Bad Monkey). Friedlander and Wesley have been friends since working on The Vampire Diaries together. Since then, Wesley has also starred in Friedlander’s Tell Me a Story, on which she served as an executive producer, and had a recurring role on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. According to Deadline, the idea for the vampire comedy came from producer Aaron Kaplan, Friedlander, and Wesley, who then took it to Fresco. The pitch received several offers before it landed at Fox.

Vampire comedies appear to have overtaken the brooding, misunderstood, heartthrob stories of the noughties in recent years. With the What We Do in the Shadows television series and 2023’s Renfield movie, it looks like creatives have found a new vein from which to still draw blood in this genre.


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Laura Pollacco
Laura Pollacco (she/her) is a contributing writer here at The Mary Sue, having written for digital media since 2022 and has a keen interest in all things Marvel, Lord of the Rings, and anime. She has worked for various publications including We Got This Covered, but much of her work can be found gracing the pages of print and online publications in Japan, where she resides. Outside of writing she treads the boards as an actor, is a portrait and documentary photographer, and takes the little free time left to explore Japan.