Interview with the Vampire is close to ending its second season soon, and thus, closing out the events of Anne Rice’s original novel. So what will a possible third season entail? Well, even though the show’s name is Interview with the Vampire, it’s actually adapting elements of Anne Rice’s entire Vampire Chronicles saga. And that’s a whopping thirteen books. According to series creators Rolin Jones and Mark Johnson, season three will tackle Rice’s second undead novel, The Vampire Lestat. Here’s what Rolin Jones recently told us at the Interview with the Vampire season two premiere:
The next book was the one I wanted to do. So I hope I get a shot at it — The Vampire Lestat.
At the time, season three didn’t have an official greenlight, but Deadline recently announced that Rolin Jones had signed a new deal with AMC. And that made us think a greenlight for their anchor Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe show was imminent. And we were right: I nterview with the Vampire has now been renewed for season three. There was a dash of The Vampire Lestat in this season, with episode three in the form of the flashback of Armand (Assad Zaman’s) first meeting with Lestat, but we’ll be heading into the book full force next season.
Season 3 of Interview with the Vampire Will Officially Be Based on The Vampire Lestat
A synopsis for season three of Interview with the Vampire reveals that we can expect The Vampire Lestat in full. It shares:
In season three, resentful of the perfunctory portrayal in the trashy bestseller “Interview With The Vampire,” the Vampire Lestat sets his story straight in a way only the Vampire Lestat can—by starting a band and going on tour. Gabrielle. Nicholas. Magnus. Marius. Those Who Must Be Kept. They join Louis, Armand, Molloy, Sam, Raglan, Fareed and others we can’t tell you about yet on a sexy pilgrimage across space, time and trauma. No Auto-Tuning. No Trigger Warnings. All Feels Amplified.
More About The Vampire Lestat
Anne Rice’s second vampire novel The Vampire Lestat was published in 1985, nine years after Interview with the Vampire. Interview was initially a cult hit that took years to build into a classic. Yet its sequel was an instant best-seller, truly spawning a franchise. Rice took the original novel’s villain, made him an anti-hero, and greatly expanded the vampire mythology. In book two, through Lestat’s eyes, we go back in time to Renaissance Italy, the Roman Empire, and ancient Egypt. The scope is much bigger, so it will be interesting to see how Rolin Jones tackles it in a series.
One potential problem fans might have is that Louis, played by Jacob Anderson, is a very minimal presence in book two. The bulk of the events of the novel take place before Lestat ever meets Louis in New Orleans. One remedy for this problem could be Louis interviewing Lestat about his past, instead of Lestat merely writing a memoir, as he did in Rice’s novel. Thus, the name Interview with the Vampire still makes sense, and Jacob Anderson could remain in the series. Anderson’s Louis going from interviewee to interviewer would be an interesting twist for sure.
Originally published on June 17, 2024.