Will There Be A ‘True Blood’ Crossover On NBC’s New Pilot ‘Midnight, Texas’? Plus, New Cast Announced

For book fans of HBO’s True Blood who were sad to see the demise of the vampire series, it seems they will soon be able to settle on another series by the same author, Charlaine Harris. NBC and Universal Television have given the green light for a pilot of the book trilogy by Charlaine Harris, Midnight, Texas.

IMDb lists the synopsis for Midnight, Texas below.

“Its Twin Peaks meets True Blood in Midnight, Texas; a remote town where your neighbor could be a vampire, a witch, a werewolf, or even an angel.”

Sounds a lot like True Blood even without the author connection, doesn’t it? According to book fans, the trilogy is just as much fun as the original series True Blood was based on, The Southern Vampire Mysteries, giving the series an overall ranking of 4 stars on Amazon. The Midnight, Texas series consists of three novels; Midnight Crossing, Day Shift, and Night Shift.

And for those fans who really can’t shake the lack of True Blood, there might even be potential crossovers. The book series starts with a crossover from another of Harris’ book series, using the character of Manfred (from the Harper Connelly series) to set up the story. So, considering her Southern Vampire series also includes vampires, witches, and werewolves, it seems a crossover could be inevitable at some point.

But for those fans who watched True Blood because it was on HBO, it is unlikely Midnight, Texas will be as bloody or involve as much gratuitous sex as the HBO series since NBC is a TV provider and not cable.

So what do we know already about Midnight, Texas?

According to Deadline, Orphan Black’s Dylan Bruce will star in Midnight, Texas as Bobo Winthrop “who owns the town’s Pawn Shop, as well as a chunk of local real estate.” This Deadline article also has Sarah Ramos (Parenthood) staring as a character called Creek in Midnight, Texas, a role that sounds a little similar to that of True Blood’s main character, Sookie Stackhouse.

“A girl next door beauty who works two jobs – a waitress at the local restaurant and working the counter at the Gas and Go convenience store her dad owns. She is bright, funny and dreams of more but lives at home to protect her teen brother from their oppressively strict and protective father.”

While Sookie Stackhouse’s parents were dead, she also worked as a waitress and had a younger brother who needed protecting at times.

The Midnight, Texas lead role of Manfred Bernardo has gone to François Arnaud (Blindspot). Deadline reports this character having “grown tired of life on the road, takes the advice of his dead grandmother and decides to settle in the small Texas town of Midnight.” However, Manfred soon discovers the town is more than what it seems, with many of the locals being supernatural.

But how close will the Midnight, Texas series be to the novels they are based on? If NBC follows in HBO’s footsteps, Midnight, Texas will follow the book series fairly closely to start with. However, by Season 3, HBO had pretty much made True Blood a show independent of the book series it was based on. Some book fans liked the deviation, while others were upset with the drastic changes and the loss of loved characters who were changed beyond recognition on the TV series–or didn’t even make it there at all. However, considering Midnight, Texas is a smaller book series, with less of a cult following (so far), it is likely NBC will not have to worry so much about book and TV crossovers as HBO did.

Midnight, Texas is an NBC/Universal Television collaboration written and executive produced by Monica Owusu-Breen and executive produced by David Janollari. As yet, there is no set release date for this pilot, although Entertainment Weekly has it slated for a fall release in 2016.

Are you looking forward to Midnight, Texas? Let us know by commenting below!

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]