If news of a TV series based on Swedish vampire sensation Let the Right One In sounds familiar — well, it should. The 2008 film, which swiftly received an American remake, has been the subject of TV series speculation since 2015, with another attempt in 2016. Now, it seems the show is getting a third chance.
So much for those earlier set-ups at A&E and TNT. Deadline reports that Showtime is the new home for the project, having ordered a pilot with a new creative team in place: showrunner Andrew Hinderaker (Away) and director Seith Mann (Homeland). Though the main characters of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel and its subsequent big-screen adaptations are 12-year old kids (well, one’s 12; one’s an eternal-tween vampire), there’s also a key adult character in the form of the vampire girl’s father, who also serves as her protector and helps find victims to satisfy her blood cravings. Veteran actor Demián Bichir (A Better Life, Hateful Eight, The Nun, Chaos Walking) has been cast in that role. The Oscar nominee will also serve as a producer.
“The series is both a love letter to the original film, and a story entirely our own,” Hinderaker said in a statement to Deadline. “And casting a true artist like Demián epitomizes our bold aspiration to be one of the most terrifying shows on TV, and one of the most moving.”
No word yet on who might play the kids in this take, but considering how good the original was — and how almost-as-good the remake was — there’s definitely potential for a TV series to take Let the Right One In’s themes of family, isolation, friendship between outsiders, and remorseful yet horrifying violence into some interesting directions.