True Blood Carrie Preston promises more weird stuff—and vampires!"

Carrie Preston, who plays the man-crazy red-headed bar waitress Arlene Fowler in HBO's vampires series True Blood, told SCI FI Wire that the show will delve deeper into various supernatural phenomena when it returns in the summer with 12 new episodes.

"Things are going to get a little crazy on the show," Preston said in an exclusive interview. "There's going to be a bunch of new sort of supernatural things that are being introduced. Besides the ... the vampires. And, as far as Arlene goes, well, let's just say that Arlene's not the type of woman to be single for very long." Arlene's last fiance, Rene (Michael Raymond James), was revealed to be the serial killer in last season's finale and wound up with a shovel in the head.

The show's second season will also boast a bunch of new cast members, including Valerie Cruz, Anna Camp and Ashley Jones, as well as Battlestar Galactica's Michelle Forbes, Mehcad Brooks and Deborah Ann Woll.

"We just finished the fifth episode," Preston said. "Starting the sixth one today out of 12, so we're almost halfway through already."

Following is an edited Q&A based on our exclusive interview. (Some minor spoilers ahead!)

Talk a little bit more about some of these supernatural elements we're going to see in the show.

Preston: I don't know if I'm at liberty to talk about it in detail, but, we are departing a bit from the books [the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris]. ... So the writers have really taken the groundwork that they set in the first season and kind of launched from that, and they're fleshing out characters that are minor in the books, and they're ... changing some plot things, and they've really made it their own. ...

You're going to see some characters doing things that you're surprised at, which will be fun. So I think the show is going to kind of keep you on your toes, and there's several different storylines that are spinning in the air. ...

I presume one of those would be Sookie (Anna Paquin) and Bill (Stephen Moyer).

Preston: Sookie and Bill, uh huh, and we're going to follow Jason [Ryan Kwanten]. He's going to kind of veer off the path a little bit. And so we'll be watching that. And then Tara [Rutina Wesley] has gotten herself involved with some questionable characters. And then, of course, you're always going to touch back down into the Merlotte's crowd. ...

Tara's now with Maryann, played by Michelle Forbes.

Preston: Oh, yes. She's going to figure quite prominently this season. ... It's very mysterious, and, I mean, we're still a little confused ... as to what her powers actually are. But, you know, she is a very powerful force.

Will there be deaths?

Preston: Some new characters have been introduced and, you know, it remains to be seen whether they will live or die. That's the thing with being on the show, you just never know: Are you going to make it? Are you going to make it through the season? Especially now that they've departed from the books. Because when I got the job, of course, I read all the books to see if Arlene lives, and she does in the books, but who knows?

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