LRM Online had a chance to speak with Ian Somerhalder, star, executive producer, and director of the new Netflix original series V Wars, which is based on a comic series of the same name by Jonathan Maberry.

In our discussions, we discuss why Somerhalder, who is known for his work on The Vampire Diaries, decided to return to the world of vampires in this latest project.

V Wars hits Netflix this Friday on December 5, 2019!

LRM Online: Thank you for having a brief moment with us to discuss V Wars.

Somerhalder: Yeah, thank you for taking time to talk to me about it.

LRM Online: Of course. I mean this is exciting. You’re starring in the series, executive producer, directed some episodes. Can you please share a feedback on all this excitement?

Somerhalder: I’m really grateful to have been able to be a part of it at this level. Look, season one of shows is tough, right? You’re really trying to find your footing. You’re really finding the characters. You’re trying to find the look of the show, feel of the show. You’re grasping every given corner. You’re just creating. Sometimes with much preparedness and sometimes just on the fly.

And, if it wasn’t just for my producing partner and it’s not about just getting it onto screen, I mean, getting on the camera, right? It’s also about getting it in the edit. It’s about getting it, not just on film, it’s about completing it, and crafting the edit in the editing room.

We have a huge team of people. There’s 80 people still just working around the clock in Toronto actually, delivering these last few huge effect shots after I’ve been building out this world. And, it’s every frame. You’re crafting every single frame. We knew we had something special and we looked to Netflix and IDW. One of the great things about working with Netflix is that it’s non-linear television. So we got to get some extra time to put this together in an edit. And we were really grateful for that, because we needed it and we wanted to craft the story to be meaningful, to be relevant, to be insightful, to be inspiring, to be entertaining, to be scary, and to be dynamic. And to build all those things, there’s hits and misses, but we’ve put our hearts and souls into it, and we just … Season one gives you a taste of the world, right? And then we get to broaden it in season two and subsequent seasons.

But, we were really just got a taste of the world. And, things are about to go south very quickly for our characters, and it’s going to be a very unique and fun ride.

And, I can’t wait to just get into a writer’s room on season two of this show with a diverse dynamic group of women and men, and really look at what are the…

Whiteboard out — what are the big pillars of society and how can we pull out as many blocks of the Jenga set and where it almost crashes down? But, what are those big pieces? You know what I mean? What happens when there are so many Bloods that commercial airline traffic stops and the Bloods have to have their own airlines? Or when the mortgage companies start suffering because people aren’t paying their mortgages for cancer, right? They’re sick. Millions of people are sick, they’re turning into Bloods, they’re out on the streets trying to feed, or they’re getting rounded up, or they’re getting killed themselves.

Our society and our economy and our social structures are actually quite fragile. So when you introduce something so disruptive and dangerous like this you get real societal upheaval. And, we just want to tell the nuance of that, right? This isn’t a $15 million an episode Game of Thrones situation. This is the grounded, more scientific, medical-based vampires. You’re seeing them turn in real-time. And, it’s this story of this scientist who is going to try and hold this all up and find a cure so he can save humanity and his son.

LRM Online: So from the trailer I got a chance to view your character seems…correct me or whatever teaser you can give, please do. But, it seems like your character seems to stand out from everyone else in the crowd. You have the doctor that at the same time is not seeing these vampire killings going on. Not seeing these vampires as like the killer. You kind of like feeling, like understanding them. You’re not just seeing them as just labeling them as killers. Am I wrong?

Somerhalder: No, that’s a really cool perspective and I’m grateful that you just shared that. The idea is you want to feel for them. No one asks for this, right? This is like a disease. Just think of cancer, think of AIDS in the ’80s and ’90s, and the early turn of the century until the last five years where people have really found a way to prevent or slow or cure this situation.

Stories and characters are best told….

I learned this from the Vampire Diaries, which is…

A character like Damon, the guy he was not the nicest person in the world. He was kind of an asshole. But, people loved him because he had heart, and he was funny, and he also had a certain vulnerability to him that was palpable and people loved, right?

LRM Online: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Somerhalder: So, that is important. And, we want to create that push, pull with the audience where you find a character that resonates with you but they may do things and their actions may be questionable, but you’re with them on that journey and you try not to judge them. You may disagree with what they’re doing, but then you realize they have to. Certain characters may annoy you to no end, but then you feel for them because they’re going through something that you can’t imagine.

You want people falling and falling for these characters. That is something that takes a tremendous amount of thought, a nuance and perspective. And, so that’s just hoping we get to tell these very relevant stories. Jonathan Maberry wrote this in 2012. These are all very now relevant stories, right?

LRM Online: Yes.

Somerhalder: And dealing with a lot of things that we’re dealing with in society right now happening outside of our door. Right? Borders, racism, disease, fear, politics, the politics of fear and how it’s injected into society. We’re dealing with these things on a massive global scale now, and it’s amazing. So, we don’t have to bludgeoned viewers over the head with it. It’s there. And this is the stuff that’s just in our own echo chambers, right?

This is stuff that is out there in the world and you don’t have to scroll on Instagram or read whatever news publication it is you read to know that this is going on. It’s everywhere. And, that’s those social relevance that we find that’s so unique that we can kind of weave into the very thread of the story. Weave into the fabric of this story. So it’s exciting.

LRM Online: It is going to be very exciting to see. Thank you so much for your time. Wish we had more time to discuss more, but we definitely look forward to seeing it on Netflix in December.

Somerhalder: Yeah. If you can inspire people to watch it. I mean listen again, we’re just setting up this world and we really want to make it something that can span globally over multiple seasons, and we get to bring in diverse, amazing characters from all over the world. You know?

LRM Online: Well, looking forward to it. You mentioned we’re starting with season one coming out, and you’re already mentioning season two. So, this is definitely something to look forward to much more.

Somerhalder: Well, I need viewers to get to that season two. So you help me with that and you, and I will have this conversation in a number of months when season two is happening.

LRM Online: Sounds good. Teamwork. Thank you so much, Ian for your time.

Somerhalder: Teamwork, makes the dream work. Thank you for your time. I’ll talk to you later.

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