Joe Manganiello Wishes ‘True Blood’ Hadn’t Killed Off His Werewolf Character: “There Was A Lot Left Unexplored”

Long before he started working as a game show host for NBC, Joe Manganiello played the beloved werewolf Alcide Herveaux on HBO’s True Blood.

It was the best of times for the actor — that is, until it came time to end his five-season run in 2014. In a conversation with Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM show, Manganiello admits that his departure from the hit drama didn’t come with the closure he would have preferred.

“I thought there was so much left on the table for me,” the Deal or No Deal Island host told Cohen. “The thing about it was they never planned for me to be on the show past one season. I was signed up as a guest star my first season, and when my character really broke and people really loved the character, they were kind of unprepared for that to happen.”

“I wound up on the show for five years in total, but my character had to get out of the way so that Sookie (Anna Paquin) could wind up settling the A and B plots with Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), and the only way to get me out of the way was … spoiler alert … you know, to shoot me in the face. I really felt like there was a lot that was left unexplored.”

Manganiello was the second fatality in the show’s seventh and final season, after the death of Tara (Rutina Wesley) in the premiere. His character was shot while following Sookie into the forest.

Now, Manganiello wouldn’t mind another shot at playing a man who grows hair and sharp fangs. “I’m always on the lookout for like a good werewolf script for me because… I feel like there’s a lot in me that was unfinished. I have unfinished business in the werewolf department.”