Yetide Badaki, who may be best known for playing the character Bilquis on the television series American Gods, is teaming up with Payback Entertainment to develop both a TV series and a comic book called Naija Vamp, a “Nigerian vampire story” that will tell us all about a Nigerian vampire’s hunger for eternal love, beyond the flesh. It is described as an irreverent love letter to all those who have ever felt othered, wrapped in a blood-sucking coming-of-age self-discovery romp.
Both the television and comic book versions of Naija Vamp will follow 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.
Badaki is co-writing the comic book with Stranger Comics President Sebastian A. Jones, who co-founded Payback Entertainment with Insecure showrunner Prentice Penny. Payback will publish the book and Stranger Comics will distribute, with the first issue expected to reach store shelves sometime in the summer of 2023.
Badaki provided the following statement to Deadline: “I am over the moon to be embarking on such an epic storytelling adventure with Prentice, Sebastian and the team at Payback Entertainment. 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.“
Jones added: “When Yetide first pitched her idea of Naija Vamp I was bitten. She had created such a culturally rich setting, and one I had never seen before but in a tale we could all relate to in an ironically human way. Nigerian vampires with family issues and a hero wanting to find the true love we all crave. But it’s our cravings that can get us into trouble, and hers are little more deadly. I’m so excited to be able to be part of something as fun and bloody wonderful as Naija Vamp.“
And Penny had this to say: “Yetide has created something really special in Naija Vamp, it feels like the perfect blend of horror and comedy from a perspective we don’t get to see enough but need more of. I’m just really honored and excited we get to explore and develop both the comic and TV landscape from inception and then launch this vampire franchise on the mortal world.“
Naija Vamp sounds promising to me, so I look forward to seeing how it’s going to turn out. Does Naija Vamp sound interesting to you? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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