Season 1
10 episodes Dec 5, 2019 5.9
Overview
After a mysterious disease begins transforming people into vampires, Dr. Luther Swann is pitted against his best friend, now a powerful vampire leader.
Seasons
1 listed- Status
- Canceled
- Seasons
- 1 season
- Episodes
- 10 episodes
- First aired
- Dec 5, 2019
- Last aired
- Dec 5, 2019
- Episode length
- 42m
- Network
- Netflix
Latest episode: S1 E10 Bloody But Unbow'd (Dec 5, 2019)
Cast
5 people
Reviews
5 min readBlood on the Lab Coat
I’ll admit it: I came to V Wars expecting a guilty pleasure. Ian Somerhalder, fresh off The Vampire Diaries, playing a scientist instead of a vampire? A pandemic turning people into bloodsuckers, with climate change as the culprit?
The premise had all the makings of a late-night Syfy channel flick, stretched to a Netflix series. And for the first few episodes, that’s exactly what it felt like—a B-movie with delusions of grandeur, stumbling through its own mythology with the grace of a lab rat in a maze. But somewhere along the way, something unexpected happened.
I stopped rolling my eyes and started leaning in.
That’s not to say V Wars ever fully sheds its low-budget skin. The CGI is often rough, the dialogue occasionally clunky, and the pacing lurches between breakneck and sluggish. Yet there’s a strange sincerity to it, a willingness to embrace its own absurdity without winking at the audience.
It’s the kind of show that would rather risk looking foolish than play it safe. And in a landscape where so many genre series are polished to a sterile sheen, that recklessness can be oddly refreshing.
The central conflict is classic sci-fi horror: a pathogen, unleashed by melting permafrost, rewires human DNA, turning its hosts into ravenous vampires. Dr. Luther Swann (Somerhalder), a virologist with a personal stake in the outbreak—his son is among the infected—finds himself at odds with his former best friend, Michael Fayne (Adrian Holmes), who has fully embraced his new vampiric identity and now leads a militant faction of the infected.
Their dynamic is the show’s emotional core, a twisted riff on the "two sides of the same coin" trope. Swann is the rationalist, clinging to science and morality; Fayne is the pragmatist, arguing that survival justifies any means. It’s a familiar setup, but V Wars gives it a twist by grounding the conflict in real-world anxieties.
This isn’t just about vampires—it’s about how societies fracture under the weight of fear, how quickly compassion erodes when resources dwindle, and how easily the line between victim and monster blurs.
Audience Opinions
Limited evidence
"A Somerhalder-led vampire-virus story that draws curious genre fans but leaves many unsure whether to stay with it."
People came to V Wars for Ian Somerhalder and Adrian Holmes in a Netflix story about a thawed frozen virus creating vampire-like humans, and the audience conversation keeps circling whether it is worth watching. latestnetflix.com's take is that russian-language viewers often compare Somerhalder's scientist character to his earlier vampire role, with some enjoying a bloodier, less romanticized take built on genetics and coexistence and praising the cast, while others call it passable and uneven on politics, power struggles, family trouble and friendship.
What viewers praise
- Familiar star hook Ian Somerhalder and Adrian Holmes leading a story about a thawed virus creating vampire-like humans gives fans of supernatural drama a clear reason to try it.
- Active review curiosity Ongoing review discussion around the Netflix series keeps it on the radar for viewers deciding what to watch next.
Common complaints
- Should-you-watch hesitation The word of mouth centers on whether viewers should be watching, which makes newcomers cautious about committing.
- Divisive vampire twist The science-driven vampire-like premise splits viewers who expected a more traditional vampire story.
Recommended for
Fans of Ian Somerhalder looking for another vampire-adjacent lead role Viewers curious about science-driven vampire-like stories with horror and drama
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsHe offered Netflix the money back. They kept the cut. Then they killed the show.
Ian Somerhalder spent a July 2026 podcast blaming V Wars for the end of his acting career. His version is expensive, bitter, and still one-sided. Netflix has never confirmed the internal fight he describes. The cancellation is not a rumor. latestnetflix.com's take is that March 30, 2020, the streamer dumped the vampire-virus drama after one season, the same day it dumped IDW sibling October Faction.
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He wanted a lab coat this time. "I wanted to do V Wars because it was me, not as a vampire, it was me as a scientist," he told Haley on the Go, as quoted by People. He moved the family to Northern Ontario. Cameras ran through Sudbury, Cambridge, and Toronto from late June into October 2018. Ten episodes, from Jonathan Maberry's IDW books. William Laurin and Glenn Davis ran the room. Brad Turner directed the pilot. Somerhalder directed episode nine himself, "The Junkie Run of the Predator Gene." Nikki Reed even turns up as Rachel Swann. , ,
Then, in his telling, the cut that came back was unwatchable. He says he told the studio he did not want his name on it and offered to return millions. Netflix, he claims, handed him creative control and "not a dollar more." He and producing partner James Gibb raised more than $6 million, shot "10 or 12 hours of footage in about six days," and he landed in hospital. Treat that as his account, years later. The trades never printed a matching rescue-edit story in 2019.
A glacier, a best friend, a cliffhanger nobody cashed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1kuAdVKvuE
Before premiere he sold the premise as climate panic with teeth. "Ice is melting and exposing pathogens, viruses and bacteria that could make the bubonic plague look like a chickenpox party," he told TVLine. Luther Swann is an infectious-disease doctor. Adrian Holmes is Michael Fayne, the friend who becomes the underground vampire leader. Laura Vandervoort, Peter Outerbridge, and Jacky Lai fill the rest of the war. Netflix dropped all ten hours on December 5, 2019. The official trailer is still a doctor shouting at a blood nation. Critics split hard. Rotten Tomatoes later sat at 56 percent on nine reviews. The Boston Globe called it a fun B-movie stretched to series length. Pajiba called it poorly written trash. , ,
Somerhalder later alleged "the execs were fighting, and someone quietly canceled the show," and that the company would not reverse it because a reversal would set a precedent. That is his story. What the trades printed in 2020 is simpler. Same-day axe for two IDW freshman dramas, while Variety noted Locke & Key, the third IDW Netflix title, had just been picked up. The finale jumps four months and leaves Swann on a revenge hook. In 2024 he told People they had the rights back. He also said he did not know how they would ever make the series again. He walked. , , 
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.