Comic-Con 2013: TRUE BLOOD Panel

Mixing romance, suspense, mystery, and humor, the Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated True Blood kicked off its sixth season June 16 on HBO. The series follows waitress and part-faerie Sookie Stackhouse (Oscar and Golden Globe award winner Anna Paquin ), who can hear people's thoughts and vampires Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) and Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård). Brian Buckner serves as executive producer of the series, which also features Ryan Kwanten as Jason Stackhouse, Sam Trammell as Sam Merlotte, Rutina Wesley as Tara Thornton, Nelsan Ellis as Lafayette, Deborah Ann Woll as Jessica Hamby, Kristin Bauer van Straten as Pam, Joe Manganiello as Alcide, Anna Camp as Sarah Newlin, Michael McMillian as Steve Newlin, and Rob Kazinsky as Ben/Warlowe. Oscar and Emmy Award winner Alan Ball created and is also an executive producer on the series, based on the bestselling Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. Moderated by Kate Huhn (TV Guide Magazine).

Started with a preview trailer of the second half of this season, which showed SPOILER ALERT all of the major vampire characters in dire straights in the vampire internment camp while Sookie stood giving a eulogy at a funeral, continually drawn to half-vampire, half-faerie Warlowe, then ended with a shot of Bill falling comatose to the floor, covered in blood.

While the actors remained coy on some of the details with their characters' development, Kristin Bauer van Straten gave this insight on last week's cliffhanging episode where Pam and Eric were forced to fight to the death: "When I got the script, I didn't know what to make this. The great thing about these writers is that they find so many layers of conflict, fighting for our lives against the people we hold most dear."

Newcomer Rob Kazinski, on his character Warlowe, the long feared vampire whose destiny is tied to Sookie's: "Is he evil? He's fay, he's a creature of light, but he's mixed with the darkness of the vampire."

New show runner Brian Buckner said that for the rest of the season, fans could look forward to the show "getting back to its roots. We're going back to the world of Bon Temps and condensing the number of stories we're telling. It will really feel like we're coming home."

Attention turned towards fan favorite heartthrob Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse.) Referencing the homoeroticism previously portrayed between Jason and Steve (Michael McMillian) moderator Huhn asked if Steve still had feelings for Jason. "Oh yeah," McMillian mused. "That flame is never gonna burn out."

Kazinsky recalled one of the first scenes he had to shoot, which was a homoerotic dream with Kwanten's Jason: "Ryan really treated me like a lady," he joked. "Real gentle."

During the Q&A, a fan asked if any other supernatural creatures would make an apperance. Buckner answered: "Ultimately this show is about the relationship about humans and vampires and about this town."