Forget The Drink — True Blood Is All About Sex, Sex, Sex

True Blood, HBO's new show about vampires drinking synthetic blood, will be chock full of steamy human-on-vampire action, judging from the True Blood panel at Comic-Con. The horniest of the lot, head writer Alan Ball (Six Feet Under), spilled all the details about season one Blood. For some reason, nobody wanted to mention the fact that the show had completely recast one character from the leaked original pilot. Click through for more details on the Blood panel and our new vampire neighbors.

Charlaine Harris, who wrote the Southern Vampire Mysteries that True Blood is based on, was on the panel, much to the delight of fans. Cast members in attendance were Ana Paquin who plays main character Sookie Stackhouse (a do-gooder waitress who can hear everyone's thoughts), Stephen Moyer (Sookie's 173-year-old vampire love interest), sassy Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse, Sooki's slutty older brother), Nelsen Ellis (Lafayette, uber gay friend), Sam Trammell (local bar owner Sam Merlotte who carries a torch for Sookie), and finally Runtina Wesley who is Sookie's bestie — and strangely enough a completely different actor from the first episode that leaked onto the internet.

The new actress looks way different than the original Brooke Kerr (from Passions.) I didn't hear anyone announce the switcheroo, though who could blame them? If you caught the original trailer that was on the internet, Brooke's Southern accent sounded like squeezing a cat.

A clip was shown of the new True Blood series and from the footage it looks like we're diving head-first into the world of vampire sex. The undead nightclub Fantasia got some screen time, looking like a back-woods strip club full of over sexed gyrating vamps. It would appear as if kindly vampire Bill takes his virginal date Sookie to the vamp club. But in exchange, it looks like Bill has to sit down to dinner with Sookie's family and listen to her pissed brother telling him he's no good. Then more half naked vampire caressing, vampire humping, and vampire moaning.

According to head writer Alan Ball, there are three cardinal vampire movie or series sins. The first is blue light, the next is contact lenses, and finally opera music. "I basically wanted to give the actors fangs and let them act the part," explained Ball. Sure, Alan, forget the fact that the whole sexy-vampires thing is a tad overdone as well.

Author Charlaine Harris wouldn't talk about the 9th True Blood book she was working on, but seemed pleased as pie that the True Blood series was sticking so closely to her storyline. The entire first season of HBO's show will be based on the first True Blood book.

But still there were a lot of other questions stuck in between the sex talk.

What's up with the vampire look in TB?

Alan Ball: The supernatural in True Blood is very matter of fact, very off hand. We approach the supernatural with a deeper more primal manifiestation. We are very cerebral. We're very specific about the fangs. They retract and click down like a rattlesnake fangs. It's simple: the focus is on what is the big draw in the stories, which is their characters and their relationship.

Why is Sookie so virginal and pure? We get that she's a virgin, but why is she such a tease with the tight tops and the blonde hair?

Ana Paquin: In the second episode, you get to see all of the horrific bad dates she's gone on where she can hear exactly what her dates are thinking. It's kind of why she doesn't have a social life, so to speak. Plus she works in a bar so you can imagine what people are thinking there.

Charlaine Harris: She [Sookie] knows she's pretty and sexy but can't do anything about it. She enjoys being a woman and wants to have a relationship. But I need to say she's a virgin, she's a virgin, she's a virgin. That's known.

So do Sookie and Bill, you know, do it?

Alan Ball: Yes. I'm not saying it's going to last [all the sexual tension]. There will be several episodes where you'll think they will do it. Vampires' need for blood and sexual desires are intertwined. Vampires are exotic sexy creatures.

Do vampires Have their own groupies?

Alan Ball: There are a lot of people who want to hook up with Vampires and theyre called fang bangers.

So tell us more about the vampire sex, is it very dangerous?

Alan Ball: In the books there was mention of rough sex and the women having been into the rough sex we see a little bit more of that in the TV show than was in the book. We also see a lot of very romantic sex. Sex with a vampire can also be really romantic, it depends on the vampire.

What about that Lafayette guy, is he getting sexed?

Nelsen Ellis: Well he's Tara's cousin. He works as a cook and works on the road crew. He sells vampire blood as an aphrodisiac, he has a gay porn website and he escorts.

How does vampire blood, as a drug, directly change my sex?

Alan Ball: Vampire blood is a volatile drug. Some people can ride the wave, some people have a physical reaction. It's dangerous. It's a gamble when you take it. It can be an enhancement drug. You never know what it is. How is interact with your particular physiology. It's the hot drug.

Will Quinn be on the show, who would you cast for him?

Alan Ball: I don't think of ideal casting until it's time to cast.

Charlaine Harris: Quinn is a tiger. He's bald and shaves his head. It's a personal omage to Vin Diesel.

Will we see Bubba?

Alan Ball: It's hard for me to answer that question because I don't want to give that away.

Are there any plans to make Tru Blood into an actual drink?

Alan Ball: Yes it's going to be a combination of V8, valium, vicodin and vodka.

Will we see werewolves?

Alan Ball: Werewolves exist in the world. We don't see them in the first season. they will make an appearance [and] so will all the other supernatural creatures that exist.

True Blood will air September 7th on HBO.

Send an email to Meredith, the author of this post, at meredith@io9.com.