Yetide Badaki, who you might remember as the actor who played Bilquis in Starz’s American Gods (pictured above), has a Nigerian vampire show and comic book series in the works called Naija Vamp.
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Deadline broke the news that Badaki is working with Payback Entertainment, the company founded by Insecure showrunner Prentice Penny, and Stranger Comics President Sebastian A. Jones, to develop both.
“I am over the moon to be embarking on such an epic storytelling adventure with Prentice, Sebastian and the team at Payback Entertainment,” Badaki said in a statement to Deadline. “As a geek and as a Nigerian it has been a dream come true to be able to fuse both of these elements in this unconventional coming of age tale and to hopefully play a small part in further expanding inclusivity in genre spaces. To see Naija Vamp, an idea that originated in my mind, brought to fruition in partnership with the immense talents and experience of Sebastian, Prentice and the team, is the absolute geektastic cherry on top. Gratitude is an understatement.”
Want to learn more about Naija Vamp? Here’s the description of the show provided to Deadline:
The story follows Bisi, who is turning 40 years old. Again. In fact, Bisi turned 40 many years ago when she became a vampire as part of her Nigerian undead family heritage. Struggling to find herself in the New World amidst navigating her family’s Old World vampiric expectations and unable to keep a partner for fear of eating them, Bisi’s (after)life has felt like one perpetual time loop she can’t quite escape. But this year is going to be different. This year Bisi is going to learn to accept and fully embrace all of who she is, even the blood sucking part.
The series, according to Penny, has “the perfect blend of horror and comedy from a perspective we don’t get to see enough but need more of.”
Badaki is producing both the comic and the television series. The television side of the project is still in its early days, so no news yet on who will be in the show or when it will go into production (or, for that matter, where the show will air/stream). On the comic book front, the series will be co-written by Badaki and Jones and will be published by Payback and distributed by Stranger Comics in Summer 2023.
