Elvira Shares Who Could Carry the "Mistress of the Dark" Mantle After Cassandra Peterson

Cassandra Peterson has been going strong for four decades as horror host Elvira, Mistress of the [...]

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Cassandra Peterson has been going strong for four decades as horror host Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, and while she seemingly has no plans of slowing anytime soon, were a new person to take on the Elvira persona, she would likely select a drag performer to continue the character's legacy. Back in 2007, the reality series The Search for the Next Elvira was meant to result in finding a new figure to share some of Elvira's duties with Peterson, though the character's creator noted that fans never quite connected with the series' winner as strongly as Peterson, with Peterson herself continuing to be the sole performer who carries out Elvira duties.

In response to a fan asking who Peterson could see taking on the mantle of Elvira if the Movie Macabre TV series was revived, the official Elvira account replied, "Probably a fabulous drag queen who understands the character, the camp, and the cheese of the genre. They exist. I should know… I raised most of them."

Given how Peterson is still voicing Elvira in animated projects and making a variety of movie, TV, and in-person appearances, fans likely shouldn't count on getting a "new" Elvira anytime soon.

Peterson herself previously detailed the inherent challenges of passing the torch to a new performer, as she herself is so closely tied to everything Elvira represents.

"It's a funny thing. It's a character but, I don't know ... Think about somebody else playing Pee-wee Herman," Peterson shared with PopCulture.com back in 2017. "I don't know that you'd really want to see that. It would be really kind of, ew, weird."

Peterson also recalled the attempt to find a new Elvira and the struggles that came from the entire experience.

"I thought, 'What an awesome idea. I will just pass the baton onto another girl whose Elvira and who's younger and can keep doing it and travel around and go to appearances and do all this and that,'" Peterson pointed out. "We, in fact, did a show called 'Search for the Next Elvira' where we auditioned over 2,000 people, got down to the final 10 and then we picked somebody. We thought, 'Well this is awesome, we can have this girl go out and do Elvira gigs and all that.'"

She added, "Well, unfortunately, what happened is people wanted the real thing. We couldn't sell her to anyone. I think we got her to do one really sad-ass parade in Nebraska somewhere and it was sad, because she's great. She was adorable. She did a good job. They just wanted the real thing. I should be flattered, I was flattered, but I also thought, 'Oh, geeze. Now I've got to do it forever until I'm 99 years old, I guess.'"

Stay tuned for details on Elvira's upcoming projects.

Could you see another performer taking on the role of Elvira? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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