Phobia Friday: Bibliophobia- Fear of books.

Season three of True Blood is nearly a year away ('less than a year!' Alexander reminds me) but I couldn’t wait to get the scoop from show writer Alexander Woo.  I snagged him on the red carpet before a special writer’s panel at the Paley Center for Media and got some hints at who next season’s villain (or villains) might be.

FEARnet: Sookie’s world is really opening up.  As a writer, what kind of creative freedom does that allow you?  Does it come from Alan Ball, Charlaine Harris, or a combination of sources?

Alexander Woo: Ultimately, at the heart of it, it comes from Charlaine.  She is chronicling Sookie’s world opening up.  What started out as a very sheltered, one-house life – she goes from home to Merlotte’s and she comes home – suddenly she is going to all these different places, and I think the show reflects that.  The show gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and we are along for the ride.

So what happened to Bill?

If I told you that now, it would ruin it!  If I told you now, the pleasure that you would get in this moment would be completely depriving the pleasure you will get when you see it.

That is absolutely true, but it is still a year away!

Not exactly a year...

So how far are you guys into the third season?

We have started pre-production, and are going into production in about a month.  We have two scripts done and ready to go.  I’m next – I actually have a script due tomorrow!  After this I am going straight home to work on it.  We will hopefully have the first half of this season’s scripts written very shortly.

Will there be a “big bad” this season, like Maryann last season?

Maryann kind of developed over time.  One of the great things about television is that the story can evolve as it is being told.  Maryann started off as this generally insidious character, and just got bigger and bigger and bigger, because Michelle Forbes is so great, but also because the story seemed to want to go there.  With that said, I think there are opportunities for several characters – both existing and new – to really take over and be a big villain.  I don’t know if we have necessarily tapped any one character yet, but there are a lot of possibilities.

Any big guest stars next season?

The one role we have cast is Dennis O’Hare (Quarantine, Milk).  I have been a fan of his for 15 years.  He will be a huge, huge addition to our cast.

What role will he be playing?

He will be Russell Edgington, the Vampire King of Mississippi.  I can’t wait.

I heard Sam will have a long-lost brother next season.

We saw at the end of last season that he has been given the names of his birth parents, so he is going to go on a hunt – that is probably not all that surprising.  Like anything you project, it never works out the way you want it to.  He has this idea of what a reunion with his family might be like... but it probably won’t happen like that.