Anna Paquin's Sookie Stackhouse is just about the luckiest girl in the world.
Not only does the True Blood lead get to canoodle with the likes of Alex Skarsgård's vampire Eric and Stephen Moyer's vampire Bill, but now she gets a sexy werewolf, too?
HBO confirms that True Blood producers have cast Joe Manganiello as sexy werewolf Alcide Herveaux for season three of the cult-hit supernatural series.
Here's what we can tell you about this character, and the actor who's just won the part:
True Blood boss Alan Ball told us earlier this year, "I believe [Alcide] appears first in the third episode. Alcide is already in love with someone, a very bad woman named Debbie Pelt. But will he fall in love with some else? It's too soon to say." But it's no secret to fans of the books that Alcide and Sookie might have a little somethin'-somethin' going on, and the casting call for the part even admits as much, describing the character thusly: "This good-looking, rough-looking, but articulate and basically decent man is not what he seems. He is a heroic type and he and Sookie get along really well, and it's possible there's even an attraction between the two."
As for Manganiello, he's a working character actor who you'll probably recognize without being able to call him by name. Manganiello's longest TV stints so far have been as Owen on One Tree Hill and Brad on HIMYM, but if you watch Medium, you might know him from his recent guest gig as a dead father who haunts his own baby to protect him from his murdering mama (played by Amy Pietz).
No word yet on casting for the role of Alcide's mate, "were-lynx" and general troublemaker Debbie Pelt.
Season three of True Blood will likely premiere on HBO in summer 2010.
Do you approve of this casting? What do you most want to see from True Blood season three?
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