It has been a tumultuous time for the Vampire Armand. In Interview with the Vampire season two, Daniel Molloy unraveled his long-running lies to the purported love of his life, Louis de Pointe du Lac, bringing their relationship and life together to a resounding end. Sometime after that, in a fit of worshipful punishment, Armand turned Daniel into a vampire, creating his first ever fledgling in over 500 years of vampiric life. Armand has always found the act of creating a vampire to be abhorrent, but, suddenly, in The Vampire Lestat, he finds himself a vampiric maker, a position he likely never thought he would be in. Speaking with Assad Zaman about The Vampire Lestat, Nerdist was curious to know whether becoming a vampiric maker for Daniel had Armand considering his own vampiric maker, Marius. And the answer to that question was quite fascinating.
We asked Zaman whether “becoming a vampiric maker is making Armand think about his relationship with his own vampiric maker, Marius?” and Zaman noted, “That’s really good. Yes, absolutely. And I totally thought about that whilst I was there.” When asked what it was he thought about it, he shared, “I mean, there are parallels here that are, I guess, accentuated a bit more than they are in the books between Daniel and Marius. They’re closer in age, and they’re sort of…”
Bogosian interrupts the train of thought briefly to interject, “You like those daddies, huh?”
Which makes Zaman laugh before he offers, “I like my daddies. What can I say? But I think that I’m not sure how aware Armand is about self-reflecting on himself, seeing that [about Marius and Daniel], but I think he’s seeing something in Daniel that reminds him of Marius in some ways.”
Coming back in to think more seriously on the topic, Bogosian adds, “That’s pretty interesting because the Daniel that you [Armand] met in the ’70s has no accomplishments and is kind of a loser. And the Daniel that you’re dealing with now is a lot closer to Marius in that he actually has done something with his life. Although not through supernatural means, which is what Marius did. Marius built a whole empire on that.” He hastens to add, “A horrible empire of bad things.” And while Marius certainly has quite a list of bad things to answer for, this remains an interesting path for Armand’s thoughts to take.
For now, as we learned in Interview with the Vampire season two, Armand thinks that his maker, Marius, is dead. Although readers of the book know, of course, that it is not so, and Marius remains alive, unbeknownst to Armand. Marius will, in fact, appear in The Vampire Lestat, played by Christopher Heyerdahl. But we don’t yet know in what capacity. No information has yet been offered on whether we’ll see Marius interact with Armand at all, in the past or present, or learn more about how the series will portray this intense relationship. Still, it’s clear from Zaman’s answer that, having become a Vampire Maker himself, the phantom of his own maker looms over Armand.
In a piece about Armand’s backstory, we shared the following about Armand and Marius’ backstory:
Slavers sold Arun to a brothel, until his vampiric maker, Marius de Romanus, bought him. Marius renames him, Amadeo, meaning “one loved by God.” In Interview with the Vampire season two, Armand notes of his memories of Marius, “My maker’s purchase. His renaming me. His reluctance to share the Dark Gift, knowing what it would do to his beloved Amadeo. I served him with all my heart. Basked in his mercy, his worshipful mercy. Still… Amadeo had a skill. And if a friend wandered into town, I was occasionally… donated. Meatier in the forearms, but then this was… seven years before I was stricken with illness, before I was turned, and imbued with my powers.”
Regardless of some of the clear pains of his memories, Armand speaks of Marius as though he loved him greatly. He posed for paintings for his master, and Marius only gave him the dark gift when he became very sick and was near death at age 27. In the novels, he was 17, and dying from a violent attack. Later, the Roman coven burned Marius alive for being a heretic, and took Amadeo and brainwashed him into their Satanic coven. Renamed again as Armand, they eventually sent him to run the Paris coven that Magnus, Lestat’s maker, had abandoned.
Marius remains alive after the fire, as mentioned above, but he has not, to date, made himself known to Armand, nor did he attempt to save him from any of the hardships that ensued after his alleged death. So, as mentioned, the litany of bad things is clear. And yet, it’s also clear that Armand believes he loves his maker and that the relationship deeply impacts him.
Going down the other direction of this lineage of blood, in The Vampire Lestat, Armand initially abandoned his fledgling Daniel to his own devices. A bit of an irony, although one that Armand can’t understand, considering Armand’s own situation with his maker. But we’re hoping that doesn’t last very long now that Armand has confessed his love to Daniel and made himself known to him once more.
If we continue down the thought line of Armand comparing Marius and Daniel, we hope to find, at the end of it, the idea that in Daniel, Armand has finally chosen someone for himself who (hopefully) chooses him back. Assad Zaman did share that in episode seven of The Vampire Lestat, Armand is finally fully understood for the first time. And there is much in The Vampire Lestat book about Armand and Marius’ past that we haven’t seen discussed yet in this season of TV. Could the arithmetic of the variables that are Marius, Armand, and Daniel, and Armand’s considerations of them both, equate to this moment of Daniel (we assume) understanding Armand?
And as for all three of these troubled characters who share blood… Will we actually see Daniel, Armand, and Marius in a room sometime in The Vampire Lestat or beyond? The possibility seems high. And what Armand will think and feel at that point will certainly be a beyond complex mix of emotions. But complicated is what this series does best.
The Vampire Lestat airs at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. You can also read The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice today as you wait for the next episode of the series to air.
Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist. She is ready for Devil’s Minion to become even more canon in The Vampire Lestat, so one of her ships can fully sail.
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