Gina Torres, vampire. It sounds so natural, almost like we should have made one of the most iconic women in sci-fi a damn vampire already. (She wasn’t even one on The Vampire Diaries, and yes, she was absolutely on that show making out with Ian Somerhalder for an episode. It was great.) This is why the news that she will star in the ABC vampire drama The Brides sounds very delicious.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, our delightful fave will play the leader of the three wives of Dracula, Cleo Phillips:

Torres will play Cleo Phillips, the leader of the trio of brides of Dracula. An imperious woman with a queenly manner — understandably, as she was a queen in her former life — she was turned by Dracula after the death of her husband. Now a maven of New York City real estate, Cleo is challenged professionally by a mysterious newcomer — even as her ties to her sisters are dangerously fraying.

So, first, she’s probably Cleopatra, which is awesome because she totally played that character on Xena years ago and still looks just as amazing as she did then. Additionally, I enjoy the idea that the primary interaction of the series will be between the three wives. The wives of Dracula often waffle between getting nothing to do, and what they are allowed to do looking completely and utterly ridiculous. I’m looking at you, Van Helsing.

The new series comes from Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and is supposed to be “a vampire soap with strong horror elements about a trio of empowered, immortal women and the things they do to maintain wealth, prestige, legacy and their nontraditional family.” All of these things sound promising on the page. How it plays out in the series will be another thing, but I’m looking forward to seeing who else gets cast alongside Torres.

Plus, a soapy vampire series starring an Afro Latina? I’m game for it. We need more Black vampires that are the leads, so I shall be tuning in.

I will say—with BBC’s Dracula, this series, and the Dracula plays—it feels like it’s only a matter of time before we get another huge vampire series to take over the world, and I, for one, am looking forward to it. Vampires may only be my number two supernatural creatures, but they provide us with so much gay content. Once someone else picks up the Vampire Chronicles series, the vampire resurrection will begin in earnest once more!

Until then, Gina Torres wearing expensive clothes, hanging out with a bunch of fancy women, and biting a lot of people while being awesome is more than enough for me. I’ll take six seasons and a movie, please and thank you.

(via THR)

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