TRUE BLOOD NEWS: COMIC-CON, INTERVIEW WITH JOE MANGANIELLO AND MORE!

True Blood Finishes Comic-con Friday schedule via inside tv

Get ready to salivate over Comic-Con’s TV line-up for July 23. Not only will True Blood be hosting a panel that Friday, but the convention is offering plenty more TV events that you’ll be dying to suck up. (Does that vampire pun work? No? Eh, it’s Friday.)

True Blood panel and Q&A (hosted by EW’s own Tim Stack!), featuring Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alan Ball, Ryan Kwanten, Sam Trammell, Rutina Wesley, Nelsan Ellis, Deborah Ann Woll, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Joe Manganiello, and Kevin Alejandro.

Rutina Wesley promises plenty of drama for Tara via examiner.com

When you are friends with Sookie Stackhouse, there’s really no way of getting around it — you are going to have a head-on collision with drama at some point or another. On this season of “True Blood,” Tara is about to run into some of that head-first — regardless of the fact that she initially tried to get away from all this thanks to her girlfriend in New Orleans.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly on the subject on what is coming up next, Rutina Wesley claims that Tara will get herselves involved in this story — but in a much different way than anyone would initially expect:

“When you’ve got shifters and werewolves and vampires and witches, there’s bound to be some tension. There’s going to be some craziness this season, and because her best friend is Sookie, Tara is going to get swept back into everything. But I can’t tell you whose side she’s going to be on.”

Wesley has already shown that she is willing to hide her past — and this likely means that her relationship is going to be in some trouble moving forward if the two aspects of her life collide. 

Alexander Skarsgard is NOT feuding with Ryan Kwanten via socialite life

Alexander Skarsgard can look quite intimidating on the set of ‘True Blood’ when playing his character ‘Eric Northman’, but he isn’t interested in petty fueds. Rumors have been circulating that Alex and costar Ryan Kwanten were in a fight over chicks and weightlifting, but reps have confirmed this to be untrue.

Seen here, ‘True Blood’ actor Alexander Skarsgard stops by his gym for a quick workout in West Hollywood, CA on July 2nd 2011 where the star sported dark sunglasses over what appeared to be a black eye. This Swed is completely suave. I mean honestly, no one looks this amazing when they go to and from the gym. His chick Kate Bosworth is one lucky girl. The fact is, the entire cast of ‘True Blood’ is extremely attractive. Even that gap toothed Anna Paquin looks amazing in a recent V Magazine shoot!

Joe Manganiello talks season 4 romances and battles via Bakersfield.com

Last season, Joe Manganiello, 34, turned up the temperature with his smoldering performance as mysterious newcomer- and werewolf- Alcide Herveaux. True Blood fans breathed a sigh of relief when Manganiello was signed on as a regular cast member for season four.

“I love the moments where I get to play the werewolf and do some sniffing and tracking,” he said about his favorite part of the role. “Last year I loved cooking my steak and going off to eat it without a fork. I love all of those little werewolf moments. I incorporated growling into Alcide’s character: If he didn’t like something, he’d growl.”

According to the tall, dark, and handsome Pittsburgh native, a lot will happen on the HBO hit to bring about more guttural noises. Manganiello spoke to Parade.com about battles, babes, bare chests, and the struggle to be the big man in Bon Temps.

How is Alcide spicing things up this season?
“There is a moment this season where I turned to the producer and said, ‘I feel like I’m playing a different character on a different show all of a sudden.’ Alcide starts to arc this season into- something. That thing that he’s been afraid of being, that thing he hates about himself, that he hates about his own kind. He really starts to wrestle with that. It was really fascinating for me to play and hopefully will be for the audience to watch.”

Alcide was always the good guy. Will his moral code be tested?
“I think in True Blood everyone’s morals are constantly tested, but I don’t think it’s about him being any more or less moral, or him changing his spots let’s say, as much as it is about him wrestling this gift he was born with. It sounds cliche, but with great power, comes great possibility. He’s been scared of that thing inside of him.”

Do the werewolves and witches interact this season?
“The witches’ actions and troublemaking trickles down to all the residents of True Blood. With that said, this year, as far as the werewolves are concerned, it’s more about shapeshifters and werewolves getting along.”

So there will be more epic battle scenes to look forward to…
“Definitely. I got to do a lot of my own stunts this year, which was fun. There is one fight scene in particular that I can’t wait for to air so I can send it to the Pittsburgh Steelers organization. I can say that.”

I assume more fights means more bare chests…
“Yeah, it’s True Blood, come on!”

How would you describe the tone of this season versus season 3?
“Basically all of the characters that weren’t dead by the season finale, they put them in a snow globe and shake them up. So the stuff we’re filming right now is pretty exciting and they really throw everything on its head.”

Will Alcide’s romantic arc continue?
“There is definitely a romantic arc. His situation is even more complicated than last year.”

So it’s beyond a love triangle now and more of a love pentagon?
“Yeah, it’s some kind of crazy, definitely. There are more sides to it. His character, his morals, and his heart more than anything- the direction of it- is really tested. That was something really fun to play this year. It’s interesting. I’m fumbling since I’m not quite sure what I can say!”

Last season, there was a lot made of the politics between vampires and humans. Will the werewolves be thrown into that debate this season?

“Not necessarily. All I will say is that the werwolves’ politics are their own. There is a new pack of werewolves this season so we get into the politics and in-fighting. Wherever werewolves go, there will be fighting. Whether that’s a picnic, barbecue, or whatever, they generally don’t get along and there is a lot of fighting involved.”
We’ve gotten some of Alcide’s backstory. Will we get more?
“You got some of it last year but very quickly. As an actor, I have to take lines like Debbie saying, ‘Why didn’t you want to have a baby?’ and Alcide saying, ‘I don’t want to bring another one of our kind into this world’ and figure out what all of that means. There is a lot there in a few little lines. We definitely go deeper and I really got to explore Alcide internally. The writers put him in these really insane, crazy situations—stuff that is wilder and darker than anything I’ve seen on TV and rivals a lot of what I see in film. Alcide is in really wild situations and I thought it was interesting to get into that and explore how this really good, big hearted person/werewolf would deal with this. When I would read these scenes, my brain would widely start thinking about the aftermath. What a person would have to do to deal with these situations later. We do explore him and what he is made of but not as much of backstory but what happens to him this season.”

Will the romantic arc extend past Sookie? Will there be a new element, like his ex last season, introduced?
“All I can say is that you can look at one of the new posters and intuit that he’s still interested in Sookie. Very much interested. So just glancing at a poster quickly, you can definitely tell that. But aside from that, all I can say is that his life is very complicated [laughs].”

Does anything good happen to him this season?
“Yeah, there are a few moments where I walked off the set and said, ‘Wow, that was really nice and I’m glad Alcide got to have that.’ Of course that was quickly followed by the worst imaginable thing possible. Those good moments were very fleeting.”

Does Alcide last past the finale?
“I can’t say!”