A “True Blood” actor has signed on for a new role in Wilmington as a member of an elite military team.
Joe Manganiello is set to star in “Six,” a History channel drama about U.S. Navy SEALs set to begin filming its first eight-episode season next month in and around the Port City.
Although EUE/Screen Gems Studios was unable to confirm with the show’s production crew Friday that Manganiello had signed on to the cast, multiple Hollywood entertainment magazines, including Deadline, have reported the actor will play Rip Taggart, a hardened former squad leader of SEAL Team 6 who, at the show’s start, is working to protect a small African village from Boko Haram.
Manganiello tweeted “My team…#Six,” along with a photo with his fellow “Six” actors, on Friday afternoon.
This won’t be the first time the 39-year-old actor has worked in Wilmington. From 2008 to 2010, Manganiello had a recurring role as Owen Morello on “One Tree Hill,” according to his IMDb page.
Perhaps best known as Alcide Herveaux – the tough but soft-spoken werewolf and one-time love interest of Sookie Stackhouse on HBO’s campy supernatural hit, “True Blood” – Manganiello also had a stint on CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother” and was a major player in “Magic Mike” and as Flash Thompson in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy. He plays himself in the upcoming feature-length comedy, “Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday,” as the celebrity who prompts Pee-Wee Herman to set out on an adventure to track him down.
Manganiello’s latest project follows a Navy SEAL Team Six and its 2014 mission to eliminate a Taliban leader in Afghanistan. The mission goes awry when the team discovers an American is working with the terrorists.
Although fictional, “Six” is inspired by real missions, with plans to set each season in a different location. It was penned by Oscar-nominated screenwriter and Vietnam veteran William Broyles – whose credits include “Castaway” and “Jarhead” – and his son David Broyles, a military special operations veteran. The drama is a project of A+E Studios and The Weinstein Company.
“Six” will join “Good Behavior,” the TNT drama that is also slated to shoot in early spring. The show, which shot its pilot in Wilmington in October, was picked up for a first season in December.
Hilary Snow is a reporter at Port City Daily. Reach her at hilary.s@portcitydaily.com.
