Promoting the premiere of his new Syfy series, Reginald the Vampire, Jacob Batalon joins the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to talk about the show, living in New York, and rooming with Tom Holland.
The Spider-Man: Homecoming actor reminisces on his early acting days at drama school and walking the streets of New York with friends. Jacob shared he used to walk around Manhattan hoping one day to be on a show like The Tonight Show and now here's here. Jimmy Fallon calls him family and says only good things coming the young actor's way.
While sharing a snippet of his new series, Jimmy asked how his journey has been so far and how he's dealing with being in box-office breaking films. Jacob shared how the Spider-Man cast like Tom Holland and Zendaya are now family as they started the journey together so young. He was even roommates with the web-slinger himself for the first film. We're so excited to see the series and what else is in store for Jacob!
Cover Photo Credit: Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Twitter
October cannot come soon enough! To hold us off, we finally get the first official trailer to Syfy's "Reginald the Vampire" with Jacob Batalon. We're not long until we see our favorite "guy in the chair" on-screen. See him transform from an ordinary guy selling slushies to the next blood-sucker navigating his way through being a new vampire. With the official poster just releasing last week, the Spider-Man actor is coming in hot with these quick glimpses of his character. Check it all out below!
Jacob first shared last year that he's stoked to be No. 1 on the call sheet with his announcement for his next project. The Syfy series Reginald the Vampire was picked up by the NBCUniversal network and is based on the book series, Fat Vampire. The book series follows Reginald Baskin who gets turned into a slow, weak, most out-of-shape vampire by his coworker and tech guy Maurice. The story of an unlikely hero will bleed into the TV series.
Harley Peyton (Twin Peaks, Chucky), who will serve as showrunner, the dramedy imagines a world populated by “beautiful, fit and vain vampires.” Reginald Baskin will have to navigate every kind of obstacle – the girl he loves but can’t be with, a bully manager at work, and the vampire chieftain who wants him dead. He'll discover that he has a few powers of his own to navigate through the "undead life which is just as complicated life itself."
Cover Photo Credit: Jacob Batalon Instagram
Jacob Batalon may play Ned Leeds, Peter Parker/Spider-Man's sidekick on-screen, but he's now ready to be at the top of the call sheet. "The Guy in the Chair" actor isn't only working on a new SYFY series, as the lead role in Reginald the Vampire, but Batalon also lands his first cover with 1883 Magazine. He talks about his experience filming during the Spider-Man era and being casted as Ned, what his relationships are like with his co-stars, and a few ventures he looks to take on.
For you who aren't familiar with Batalon, he's a Hawai'i native who didn't have much acting experience before landing the role of Ned. He sent in a self-tape audition and literally the rest is history. Batalon is proud to bring representation to the role and reflect "the real people who exist in the world around us." Playing the role for 5 years, the process of it all has become his own coming of age story.
"I guess it was more of a surprise than anything. I feel like I’ve become a completely different person from who I was back then. I’ve grown up in a lot of ways and I feel like I had to take that path and learn about who I am on my own. That has helped me become more of myself and helped mould me into who I really am."
After being casted along with Zendaya as MJ, he said it was received with mixed comments. His character in the comics is described as white, tall with blue eyes. "It’s something a lot of people have asked my opinion on, and I feel like it’s such a sign of the times. Tons of people supported us being people of colour playing these characters, but Zendaya got this weird amount of hate..." Batalon with his optimistic personality didn't let the negativity get to him. "If you choose to not let that type of chatter impact you, there’s an even more powerful message that you’re showing those people. All we can do is choose to be good people and do our best to be successful and not listen to any of that noise."
At least he had a great group of people on set who become his family like Tom Holland and Zendaya. He shared how emotional it was to shoot the third film of the franchise because of how close they became. "They’re my family and we’ve really grown a lot together; we’ve seen each other go through a lot. It was a pretty emotional moment for us because we just couldn’t believe we had accomplished something so amazing together." We all know about his and Tom Holland's bromance. Jacob mentioned how they checked in on each other during the pandemic and stayed hopeful to continue filming. The break from filming really showed how strong the bromance was.
As for the future, Batalon's currently working on the SYFY series but also has a couple of other ideas up his sleeve. He's looking into opening a food truck in New York along with investing in the cannabis industry. Food wise, Batalon shares how there isn't much representation from Hawai'i. We all know how good Hawaiian food is! "I would love to share Hawaiian cuisine with people because it’s such a delicious, decadent type of food that I feel like a lot of people are missing out on." He also talks about how he's gone vegan and wants to try vegan Filipino food. We think he's up to something with this two investment ideas.
Check out the whole spread here! This definitely won't be the last we see of Jacob Batalon. It's only the beginning of many firsts for this Hawai'i native. With a promising career ahead and already an impressive resume, there's so much to look forward to. If he ever establishes his food truck, we'll be the first one there, guarantee! We're already manifesting a MYX Eats in the future!
Cover Photo Credit: 1883 Magazine
