TV & Movies
Alexander Skarsgård Just Resurrected His True Blood Role
Eric Northman, is that you?
Seven seasons of True Blood came to an end in 2014, but the show lives on as much as its undead characters do. In a surprise crossover, one of the HBO fantasy horror drama’s vampires appeared on FX’s What We Do in the Shadows on Dec 2.
Alexander Skarsgård made his fanged return with a cameo in Season 6, Episode 9, “Come Out and Play.” The episode sees the vampires at the center of What We Do in the Shadows — Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) — get blamed for a murder during a meeting of New York’s vampires. Skarsgård makes his appearance toward the end of the episode, during a second vampire meeting. There, Baron Afanas (Doug Jones) intimidates the group, including the former True Blood sheriff, who attempts to ask a question but reconsiders after a grisly show of force.
Officially, the character isn’t Skarsgård’s True Blood character, Eric Northman. However, with his all-black outfit and leather jacket, he’s certainly made to look like the viking-turned-vampire. Many fans saw it that way and celebrated the crossover on X (formerly Twitter). “Eric Northman cameo in What We Do in the Shadows … hell yeah,” one wrote.
Though Jones’ character intimidated Skarsgård’s on the show, he revealed that he was thrilled to have him appear in the episode. “I was tickled pink that we were going to get a pretty stormy vampire to show up in our goofy comedy show,” Jones told Screen Rant on Dec. 2. He added that the True Blood vet “pulled the funny out in a way that we did not expect” and called the experience “delicious.”
Skarsgård shared a statement about his appearance and embraced the humor of the show. “I’m afraid I have no recollection of shooting this episode as Dr. Laszlo Cravensworth apparently hypnotized me at the wrap party,” he said, per Entertainment Weekly. “But I did wake up with an intense physical attraction to Dr. Cravensworth and found his extraordinary wit, charm and intelligence absolutely disarming. I have since started a YouTube fan page for him. It’s called ‘Because you’re Cravens-worth it.’ Please like, follow and subscribe.”
His cameo on What We Do in the Shadows comes five years after that of another True Blood vet: Evan Rachael Wood. On the HBO hit, she played Sophie-Anne Leclerq, the Vampire Queen of Louisiana, from 2009 to 2011. Later, Shadows fans saw her as the Immortal Princess of the Undead, a member of the Vampiric Council, in 2019.
These cameos didn’t bring a return to Bon Temps, but there have been efforts to revisit True Blood in some capacity over the years. A musical version was in the works in 2016, and there was talk of a series reboot in 2020. Neither came to fruition, though, so for now, the occasional vampire cameo will have to quench fans’ thirst.
