In this article I am going to talk about why I think Hammer Studios should produce a tv series based on their old Dracula film series.

I don’t just want any old version of Dracula or Van Helsing I want it to be based on Hammer’s versions of the characters. Follow their mythology and history and style and direction. Hopefully after reading this article you may agree with me.

Van Helsing Has Rarely Been Used As A Leading Character

I feel that the Van Helsing character deserves some focus. He is a major literary character, arguably the first Vampire hunter, yet there have only ever been two films that feature him as the central character, the Brides of Dracula and Van Helsing (2004).

Sadly Hugh Jackman’s Van Helsing was the character in all but name. I don’t mind a young dashing Van Helsing. Indeed Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing was essentially that, but I think the character should always be an expert on the occult. That is kind of the core of the character and I feel that was missing from the Hugh Jackman version who actually had another character there with him who was an expert on the occult.

Thus I think it would be interesting to do a tv series that focused on Van Helsing.

There’s a lot of scope in Hammer’s version of the character.

Like I said Cushing’ Van Helsing is a younger character and thus still capable of being a dashing action hero, but at the same time he isn’t just a bog standard Hollywood leading character like Jackman ‘s Van Helsing.

There are lots of avenue’s you could explore with this Van Helsing. In the Hammer movies they have quite an interesting idea that prior to Van Helsing virtually no one really knows about Vampires. There are so many different myths and legends and so many different species of Vampire that no one is sure which myth is true.

Someone for instance might hear a story about Vampires being killed by running water but then encounter a Vampire that is completely immune to that weakness and would therefore write it down that a Vampire can not be killed by running water.

At the same time however someone else who had encountered a Vampire that could be destroyed by running water would write it down that that was a fatal weakness.

We even see this happen to Van Helsing in the first two Dracula films. In Horror of Dracula he says that Vampires cannot change into bats as he has never encountered a Vampire species that can, yet in Brides he discovers a Vampire species that can shape shift after all and has to change his notes.

It could be interesting seeing how Van Helsing travels the world to provide a full account for other people on the ways of the many different types of Vampire.

In things like Buffy and Blade everyone always knows about Vampire lore. There are books about the origins of Vampires, how to kill them, even about famous Vampires lives like The Master, Angelus, Spike etc.

However I often wonder who wrote those books? Its easy for Giles and Buffy fighting Vampires now because they know just to shove a stake in him, kick him threw a window in the daytime, but what about the people who wrote the book that told them about that?

They’d have to have fought monsters they didn’t know anything about and write down what they discovered for future generations.

This is what the Cushing Van Helsing’s adventures are like. He has no library on the occult like Giles to draw on, only his own notes and often he will encounter a new breed of Vampire that is unlike anything he has ever fought before.

I think it could be very interesting to show us how Van Helsing slowly learns about the many different types of Vampires, about their weaknesses, strengths, nature, origins and provides a full account of it which leads to him being ridiculed and ostracized from the scientific community, but at the same time we can see how his work still becomes popular and helps other people battle Vampires and has a lasting impact.

There are also other areas that you could explore that weren’t seen in the Hammer series, such as why Van Helsing became a Vampire hunter in the first place, and also how he had time to have a family in the middle of his Vampire hunting escapades? What happened to Leyland Van Helsing’s mother for instance?

It Would Feature A More Terrifying Dracula

Sadly despite the immense influence of the Hammer movies on Vampire fiction and how we view Dracula in popular culture I don’t think that anybody else has ever really made a version of the character like Hammer’s incredibly enough.

Most versions of Dracula that I see I think tend to borrow from other versions of the character such as Lugosi, Langella and even Gary Oldman more so than from Lee’s.

Lee’s Dracula was a total monster. He was dangerous to everyone and everything around him, his enemies, the villagers he terrorized, even his own brides and servants! He strangled them, beat them, tore their throats out, cut them to pieces, burned them, tortured them, made them infect themselves with a lethal plague that ate them away slowly away into nothing, strung their corpses from the ceiling, boiled them in acid.

He never EVER pursued his victims because he was in love with them. He did so either out of hunger or worse to make them suffer by becoming Vampires or more often than not to make someone they love suffer. Whilst there was a sexual element to Lee’s Dracula it was not presented in a romantic way. Lee’s Dracula would burst his way into his victims room’s take them over with hypnosis, have his way with them and then savagely kill them.

His treatment of them really is rape as he takes control of their minds forcing them to sleep with him and perversly enjoy being killed by him!

Those unlucky enough to be made his brides would be beaten, mistreated and abandoned at best and savagely killed like Tania and Zena at worst!

Sadly we never see a Dracula like that any more. Every version we see tends to either be the more restrained otherworldly gentleman like Lugosi with or have a  romantic, somewhat misunderstood, tortured element like Langella and Oldman or maybe be a bit of both.

Look at the Dracula in the recent short lived HBO series for instance starring Katie McGrath or the version seen in the recent film Dracula Untold. Both though still villainous offer up more sympathetic portrayals of Dracula.

I want a Dracula that isn’t sympathetic at all. I want a bloodthirsty monster like Lee’s Dracula that not only kills its victims but tortures them too in the most brutal and inhuman ways. I want a Dracula that at its worst is literally like a hissing animal, screeching and roaring at its prey, who isn’t after some woman who is the reincarnation of his long lost love, who isn’t moping about Mina. Lee’s Dracula tried to bury Mina alive!

There is a lot of Lee’s Dracula in other performances, the fangs, the bloodshot red eyes, the sexual, seductive aspect, but like I said the actual characterisation of Lee’s version of the character as the ultimate monster with no humanity whatsoever is sadly I feel something we haven’t ever really seen since Lee.

Such a Dracula would of course be the perfect adversary for the Van Helsing of the series. He would be a suitable threat and would make Van Helsing seem all the more heroic when he managed to slay such a brutal monster.

At the same time however much like the Hammer Dracula this version of the character could be brought back from the dead which would make Van Helsing’s struggle against the monster all the more tragic that he knew he would never triumph over the Demon as he would always find a way to return sooner or later. Even if he was gone for the rest of Van Helsing’s lifetime he would be back eventually.

Thus Dracula can feel almost like a curse upon the earth in this series, an evil that will truly never die.

We Could Explore Different Vampire Myths

The Hammer Dracula films as well as other Hammer Vampire films such as Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter explore the idea of there being several different Vampire species giving rise to all of the different Vampire myths around the world.

Some even incorporate other culture’s Vampire legends like Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires which focused on Chinese stories about the Jiang Shi or hopping Vampires.

The Van Helsing series would similarly feature hundreds of different species of Vampires which would naturally allow the writers the potential for a huge variety of stories.

Among the alternate Vampires from mythology I would like to see in the series are the Nelapsi.

The Nelapsi were said to be a second race of super Vampires. They were completely and utterly indestructable and could only be defeated by performing certain rituals and placing herbs around its coffin during the daylight hours to prevent it from rising.

It has bright red eyes and can kill its victims with just a glare. It has limitless strength, speed, doesn’t feel pain, and it is known to torture its victims,sometimes being able to prolong the agony for months on end. They have been known to destroy entire villages of people their insatiable desire for destruction is so great.

A monster like this would be a perfect enemy for Van Helsing.

Another Vampire myth I’d like to see explored in the series is the Draugr myth. These Vampires are ocean dwelling Vampires that rise from the sea at night and drag  their victims back to the ocean. They also can phase through solid objects and have blue, rotting faces.

The Strigoi are ghostly Romanian Vampires that have the ability to possess their victims and can even appear invisible.

The Moroi meanwhile are ghostly Vampires that drain souls from people. Sometimes they target people who wronged them in life.

The Pricolici meanwhile is a Vampire that is like a cross between a man and a wolf and absolutely savage to its core.

Then of course there are the Indian myths about Vampires. The Vetala, hideous, deformed, Demonic creatures that hang upside down from trees like bats, Kali a Vampire Goddess with six arms who wore a necklace made up of the skulls of her victims, or the Pishacha flesh eating Vampires that can be only turn the most evil, demented and insane people into members of their kind.

There are also Vampires from Jewish mythology too such as Lilith, the Demon king Ashmodai and Astryiah a female Vampire that drains the blood from its victims using its long hair! As silly an idea as this sounds I think this would be quite an interesting opponent visually for Van Helsing.

Then there are of course the Chinese Vampires, the Jiang Shi, Hopping corpses, that have limitless strength, massive fangs and tear their victims limb from limb.

Aside from actual Vampire myths they could also draw on the different depictions of Vampires throughout the Hammer movies. We would obviously have Dracula’s Vampires who sleep in coffins, have super human strength, are hypnotic and the Vampires from Vampire Circus who can change into Panthers, the Golden Vampires, and the Vampires from Twins of Evil.

These Vampires can only be killed by being staked. If their bodies are burned their souls will be able to leave their old body to take over someone else. The idea of possession is not something we generally associate with Vampires and again could open up new avenue’s for Vampire fiction.

Then there are the Vampire that drains people’s youth from Captain Kronos.

You could also explore how these different races of Vampires interact with one another. For instance how do Dracula’s Vampires view mindless beasts like the Nelapsi? Do they fear them or in their arrogance look down on them as nothing more than animals?

I think you could do an interesting story arc that saw Dracula attempt to unite the different Vampire races in order to overrun the earth. We’d see him have to work with the kings and Queens of the other Vampire races whose power might rival or even exceed his.

We’d have to see Dracula try and find a way to get power over them or deal with any Vampires who might be his enemies. Perhaps the Golden Vampires in this series could be 7 kings of 7 different Vampire races who have united and thus brought their 7 different races together which is why Dracula hopes to make an alliance with them in the hopes that they can serve as examples to the other Vampire races.

Of course it wouldn’t just be Vampires that Van Helsing would fight. The series would put him up against many different types of monsters, but again there are thousands of different myths about Zombie, Werewolves, Demons and Witches that the show could exploit.

It Could Make Use Of Many Hammer Characters

Aside from their versions of Van Helsing and Dracula there are many other characters from their Vampire movies that they could use.

Father Sandor would make a brilliant foil for Van Helsing. Sandor was in many ways created to be the anti Van Helsing. He was rough, loud and rude and socially awkward where as Van Helsing was polite, soft spoken and a perfect gentleman. Van Helsing would always keep his cool, whilst Sandor would often shout and scream! Sandor was also a man of god, whilst Van Helsing was a scientist. Even in terms of appearance, Van Helsing was waif thin, clean shaven, looked really smart and finely turned out, whilst Sandor had a big massive beard, was a bit more unkempt and had a larger more hearty build.

Finally in terms of their methods both were very different. Sandor in the spin off comics is shown to utilize black magic in order to fight the paranormal whilst Van Helsing never used it under any circumstances. Indeed the ending of Brides of Dracula was originally to have had Van Helsing use a spell to summon up a squad of bats to destroy Baron Meinster, but Peter Cushing himself rejected it as he felt it was too out of character for Van Helsing to use the black arts to destroy his enemies.

Thus we could have a lot of interesting confrontations between Van Helsing and Sandor over their different personalities. They’d certainly clash over Sandors use of magic. You could perhaps have Van Helsing learn that magic is not necessarily a force for evil. There could be some instances where we would see Sandors magic save the day when nothing else could. Van Helsing’s work mentioning magic being vital in the battle against the forces of darkness after his experiences with Sandor could be seen as a revolutionary break through for hunters around the globe.

Captain Kronos could also be an interesting character. I think that Kronos would balance out Van Helsing and Sandor in many ways. Captain Kronos would be the person who hunts Vampires because he despises them. His back story in the film is that his mother and sister were turned into bloodsuckers. Thus he would be more intense and perhaps more vicious in dispatching the undead.

Van Helsing would be very much a scientist who looks at things in an empirical way, who tries to find a rationale way to explain the ways of the Vampire and feels this is an area of science that is not explored and thus wants to provide a full account for future generations, whilst Sandor is a holy man who feels it is his moral duty to protect people from evil. Kronos however would be the one who wants revenge on the Vampires and shocks even Van Helsing with how brutal he is in dispatching them. Kronos could also clash with Sandor too as Kronos would despise his use of magic even more so than Van Helsing.

Kronos would also be more of a traditional dashing leading man too and also more of a romantic character too in contrast to Van Helsing who would be more dedicated to his work (though you would explore his family later)

Kronos’s companion would probably have to be changed to Carla, his love interest from the film played by Caroline Munro. His actual companion Professor Grost wouldn’t work in this series as he would clash with Van Helsing, as he is essentially the same type of character an expert on Vampires. Also for variety it would probably be better to have a female character among the team. Carla is nothing more than a damsel in distress in the film, but for modern audiences you could flesh her out, make her a strong and capable heroine in her own right who has to deal with the sexism around her that would be present in Victorian times.

You could still have Professor Grost be part of the series canon, but he would only appear in flashbacks as Kronos’s mentor. You could have it that he was killed by the main Vampires from Captain Kronos the Durward family who could become Kronos and Carla’s archenemies. These Vampires could also be linked to the Karnstein family as they are said to be Karnstein’s and thus through them we could introduce those characters from the Hammer canon.

Another character from Hammer canon who could be a good foil to Van Helsing is Sir James Forbes from The Plague of the Zombies. Now Forbes is an expert on the occult like Van Helsing, but he wouldn’t clash with Van Helsing as he is an expert on Zombies. In Plague of the Zombies Forbes was played by Andre Morrel who interestingly enough played Watson to Cushing’s Holmes in Hammers The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Just as there are many different kinds of Vampires you could have there be many different types of Zombies and incorporate many different myths about Zombies and ghouls and flesh eating reanimated corpses. Also his archenemy could be Clive Hamilton the main villain from the Plague of the Zombies who had survived his confrontation with him at the end of that film and was now mutilated and even more deranged and determined to make Hamilton pay.

I think the main cast of the series would be Van Helsing obviously as the lead, travelling the world with a team of Vampire hunters made up of Father Sandor, Captain Kronos, Carla and Clive Hamilton. Van Helsing would gather them all together as his team as he would know of them by reputation and hope that by gathering these experts together he could learn from them and obviously use their talents. Father Sandor would have a greater knowledge of the black arts, Hamilton a greater knowledge on Zombies, whilst Kronos and Carla would be the two greatest physical Vampire hunters, however of the two Carla would be the more disciplined fighter than Kronos as she lacks his hatred of them. At times this could make her a worse or better hunter than Kronos.

There are many colourful heroes and villains that you could utilize from the Hammer canon for this film.

There Could Be A Sequel

The Van Helsing series set in the 19th century could be followed by a sequel set in modern times.

Now you’d have two options here. Either you would set the series in the 1970’s or even the 60’s or you’d set it in modern day. Dracula AD 2016? Personally I’d prefer the 70’s setting. I think you could do a real old school Jon Pertwee era Doctor Who style thriller series that blended fantastical monsters with James Bond style Spy, espionage stories like The Satanic Rites of Dracula.

Lorrimer would be the main character of the second series of course alongside Jessica who much like Carla would be fleshed out more. I see them having a relationship akin to the Third Doctor and Liz Shaw.

You could make the series a franchise by showing us Van Helsing’s from different time periods and decades all played by different actors who could all play the Van Helsings in a different way. It would be like the different Doctors except they would actually be different characters.

You could also utilize characters from the modern day Hammer horrors too such as Duke De Richelieu.

Cast

Lawrence Van Helsing/ David Tennant

Yes I’m calling him Lawrence instead of Abraham as that is his name.in the Hammer movies remember. All the male Hammer Van Helsing’s name’s begin with an L for some reason. Lawrence, Leyland and Lorrimer.Van Helsing.

Now Tennant I think would be a good choice for Van Helsing for a number of reasons.

To start with I think he has the right look for Van Helsing. Like I said before the Hammer Van Helsing should be young, but not too young. About middle aged in his 40’s (Tennant is actually close to the same age Cushing was when he first started playing Van Helsing). Van Helsing should look mature, but at the same time young and fit enough to be able to chase the Vampires.

Van Helsing also rather than be a big buff action hero should look wirey and agile. He can’t match the Vampires inhuman strength as no one can so he should look like someone who is more light on his feet.

Also Tennant I think can play the somewhat oddball expert on paranormal quite well. Now don’t get me wrong I am not saying that I want him to pay it like the Tenth Doctor. Quite the opposite in fact. I see his Van Helsing as being a very calm, restrained character. Someone who would be the definition of a stiff upper lip type who holds his emotions in check as opposed to the manic Tenth Doctor.

I think in some ways Tennant, unless he is playing a villain, is at his best when he is being more calm and more understated. Compare the look on his face when he loses Rose in Doomsday to the notorious “I don’t want to go” and tell me which is better?

Thus I think Van Helsing though another hero part would give him a new type of character to play one that in some ways would be more tailor made for him.

Initially Tennant’s Van Helsing would start out as a more vulnerable and inexperienced character who learns about Vampires the more he encounters them and by the end of the series after he had been on his adventures we would see him as an old man near the end of the 19th century when he was the Van Helsing from the novel who now knew everything there was to know about Vampires.

I think the last series would have to take place decades after the rest of the series and feature more of an adaptation of Stokers novel. You would have Dracula arrive in London in order to use the British Empire to take control of the world.

Dracula and a now elderly Van Helsing would resume their feud which would end with a recreation of the fight atop the horse and carriage in Dracula AD 1972 between the Count and Van Helsing. This would obviously see the deaths of both Dracula and Van Helsing like in Dracula AD and would bring about the end of the original Van Helsing series. Thus you could tie the younger Cushing Van Helsing into Stokers older character quite nicely that way.

I think it would be a interesting to see how Tennant would develop the character from his early years to eventually becoming the famous  Vampire hunter from Stokers novel.

Count Dracula/ Peter Serafinocwiz

I think Peter would be a great Dracula. He kind of looks a little bit like Christopher Lee as you can see from the picture above. He’s also huge about 6 foot 4 inches tall (same height as Christopher Lee) and a has a large imposing build.

I can totally see him and Tennant fighting each other and it being a similar image to Cushing and Lee grappling with each other. Tennant is about the same height as Cushing, just over six feet, has a lighter build, is quite thin, has a long thin face, whilst Serafinocwiz is 6 foot 4 and has darker looks like Lee. Serafinocwiz is a good serious actor. Check him out in Guardians of the Galaxy. He also has a deep, booming voice too and a formidable on screen presence.

I think he’d make a terrific Dracula. Dracula’s story I think would pan out over the course of the series. He wouldn’t be in every episode of course, you’d give plenty of other villains a chance to shine but Dracula would overall be the main villain of the entire series.

Dracula would start out as ruling over Klausenberg trying to unite the different vampire races and dispose of Vampire kings that could be a threat to him. Van Helsing and his clan would finally bring his empire down after which they would then have to hunt the Vampire which would eventually lead to his forming an alliance with the Golden Vampires.

There would then be a battle with the Golden Vampires which would see Dracula die. Years later he would be brought back and travel to London to take over the British Empire which at that point was the largest Empire in the world where he would have his final battle with Van Helsing. Dracula would then return in the modern Van Helsing series where we would see him be dragged even further into madness leading to his attempt to destroy the world with a plague ala Satanic Rites of Dracula.

This Dracula much like the Lee Dracula would remind us that this is a monster based on Vlad the Impaler. He would be an absolutely sadistic, savage killer who has no affection for anyone or anything. He’d spit on his Vampire brides, hit them, abandon them, kill them! He’d flog his servants, he’d send bats and wolves to eat children and pull people’s eyes out. He’d think Vampires were the master race simply because he is one.

Peter Serafinocwiz whilst known for his roles in Shaun of the Dead and Spaced and Black Books sadly I think is very under used and I’d love to see him play a really big, strong villainous character like this.

Father Sandor/ Brian Blessed

Brian Blessed would obviously be a good choice for the loud, boisterous, hearty character with a massive beard.

I think Sandor would be one of the shows more interesting characters. He would be someone who was ejected from the priest hood due to using the black arts, something which he only did to protect mankind as he realized that sometimes you need to fight fire with fire.

You would also follow the comic book continuity by having him become infected by a Demon and eventually transform into one himself.

I think you would need to have this happen in the last series. After Van Helsing retires to London Sandor gets infected and later asks Van Helsing for help. Unfortunately there is nothing Van Helsing can do for him and so Sandor is forced to go on the run, cut off from human society.

In the sequel series set in modern day you could have Sandor still being alive, by this point having been completely transformed into a Demon but still using his powers in modern day to help people.

I think Brian would really capture the intensity of such a character superbly.

Captain Kronos/ Michael Fassbender

It seems doubtful that Hammer would be able to get him as he is fast becoming a big Hollywood star, but hey since this is a fan cast I can suggest anyone I bloody well like.

Fassbender is the best choice for Kronos for me because Kronos to start with I think should look more Germanic as that is after all how he was portrayed in the original film. I also think that helped him stand out from Van Helsing. Van Helsing looked much more mature, thin, cerebral and had darker hair, whilst Sandor was obviously older, with white hair and a thick bear. Kronos meanwhile had long blond locks, was more buff and also more of your typical square jawed hero.

At the same time not only would Fassbender look the part more but he would also as demonstrated through his stellar performances as Magneto be able to capture Kronos’s fanatical desire to destroy the Vampires and bring an edge to the character.

Kronos would definitely be the more unpredictable member of the team.

Carla/ Alison King

Now we’d probably have to change the name of this character as Alison’s character in Coronation Street that she is best known for playing is called Carla, but since I can’t be bothered thinking of another name I’ll just list her as Carla here.

The Carla of this series would obviously have to be a more complicated and interesting than the one of the film and I’m sure Alison King could really inject a lot into the character. I’d definitely rank her as one of the best British actresses on tv at the moment who has managed to make Carla Connor in Coronation Street into more than just a stereotypical ruthless ice queen and add real depth to her.

In terms of appearance Alison King obviously would have the right look for the character as she is not only stunningly gorgeous but she also has raven hair and more exotic looks with piercing eyes.

Sir James Forbes/ Julian Barratt

Julian Barratt is a very underused talent. I think he would be a good choice for this character for many reasons.. Firstly I think he is quite good at playing more old fashioned characters, and he also has a strong, commanding voice too.

I think Barratt would should us that this character was a very different type of hero to Van Helsing as he is obviously more unconventional in how he acts than Tennant would be, but in his own way he would be just as smart and charismatic.

Jaremsheela/ Michelle Gomez

Kind of obvious casting, but that’s only because she’s so good for crazy bastards. Jaremshella is Father Sandors archenemy in the comic books and would therefore be his archenemy in the series itself. She is a very powerful Demon and thus would help the show expand beyond just being Vampires all the time. I think unlike the comic books it might be more interesting to have her curse Sandor at the end of their rivalry. Just as Sandor is about to destroy her once and for all her final act is to curse him in such a way that he is never able to live among ordinary human beings forever.

Clive Hamilton/ Reece Shearsmith

Again kind of obvious casting. Shearsmith is a very talented serious as well as comedic actor. Added to that he is a huge horror movie fan and I’m sure he would do this character justice. He could also come up with some suitably horrible and creepy make up for the monsters scarred face too.

This character would be Sir James archenemy. We could follow the plot of the film and have it that his zombies turned on him, but unlike in Plague of the Zombie he would escape, though not without being horrificly mutilated first. He would then naturally pursue Sir James using his Zombie servants all the while trying to build an army of the undead to gain power for himself. I think there would be a lot of interesting zombie and living dead myths you could explore through this character and I am definitely sure that Shearsmith could bring a lot to the king of the zombies!

Lorrimer Van Helsing/ Peter Capaldi

Peter Capaldi certainly has the right look for Van Helsing. His thin long face, with his striking cheek bones, silver hair and wirey frame all make him a natural for the classic Vampire hunter.

I think that Capaldi would be a great choice for Lorrimer Van Helsing in particular as Lorrimer has to be an older character and he has to be very paternal, yet he still has to be a very physical character too.

I think Capaldi would excel on all counts. To start with with his role on Doctor Who shows that like Pertwee before him he can still not only handle all of the physical elements that the role requires, but he practically relishes in them.

He and Pertwee both kind of remind me of Spencer Tracy’s character in Bad Day At Black Rock who gets picked on by some young punk who thinks he can take him cause he’s just an old man but gets the shit kicked out of him by the seemingly frail, one armed old man.

That’s kind of what Lorrimer should be someone the Vampires would laugh at for being just an old guy, but who would then rip them to pieces.

At the same time I think Capaldi could really capture the gentle, sweet, paternal aspects of Lorrimer too. That’s the thing about Capaldi you see in real life he is such a nice, generous even somewhat shy, loving family man.

You’d never imagine him being like that of course because he is best known for playing abbrassive bastards. I think it would actually be quite good to see Capaldi get a chance to really play himself which he would be able to do with Lorrimer even more than the Doctor as we would see a much gentler side to his persona in his dealings with Jessica.

At the same time we could also see some of the trademark Capaldi anger as Lorrrimer tended to be a more intense character than Lawrence as seen when he attacks Johnny and throws the candle stick from across the room at him.

I definitely wouldn’t see Lorrimer as being like the 12th Doctor. He’d be a perfect gentleman and a devoted family man like the real Capaldi, but he’d also would still be a very intense character in his dealings with the undead.

 

Jessica Van Helsing/ Maisie Williams

Now this is not some attempt to try and recreate the dynamic of Doctor Who. I do think Maisie would be a good choice for Jessica. I think she acts very well against older actors and I think that she would be quite good at playing a version similar to Joanna Lumleys Jessica, a brainy expert on the occult a opposed to a shallow teenager. As much as I like Dracula AD it might be better to skip to this point in Jessica’s life, though it could also be interesting to see how she goes from the shallow teenager who disregards her grand fathers work to an even greater expert on the occult than Lorimmer himself. Whatever the case I think Maisie would do a great job and already has proven chemistry with Capaldi, though in this case their relationship would be the opposite of Ashildir and 12 as they would be very close to one another.

Duke De Richelieu/ Charles Dance

Now this character originally starred in 10 books by author Dennis Wheatly and appeared in the Hammer film The Devil Rides Out where he was played by Christopher Lee.

I think it would be great to feature him in this series as an old friend of Lorrimer Van Helsing, perhaps even a rival in some ways, who again in much the same way that Sir James contrasted with him by being the expert on Zombies, De Richelieu would be the expert on Demons.

I also think Charles Dance would be good for the role not only because he is an excellent actor anyway, but also because much like Lee as De Richelieu in the original  here we would have an actor best known for playing villains finally get a chance to go against type and play a hero.

Thank you for reading and let me know what you think.