The finale of Interview with the Vampire season two had quite the twist, one that continues to be critical as the series continues on in The Vampire Lestat. A flash forward showed the audience that the Vampire Armand (Assad Zaman) had turned the reporter Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) into a vampire, some time before or after published his interviews with Louis and Armand as a book. We still don’t know exactly how and when this happened… Or the full motivations behind it. It was implied to be an act committed more out of spite towards Daniel than out of love, but that’s not entirely certain at this point either. However, Armand making Daniel a vampire on Interview with the Vampire does have its origins in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series of novels.
In the novels, Daniel Molloy doesn’t even have a proper name until the third novel in Rice’s series, The Queen of the Damned. In the 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire, the young reporter was simply referred to as “the Boy.” At the end of that first novel, he ran off, with Louis’ tapes in tow, hoping to find Lestat. In book two, The Vampire Lestat, we find out that the boy had the recordings transcribed and published as the book Interview with the Vampire. A recently reemerged Lestat discovered that his name and much of his life was put on public display for mortals, passed off as fiction. Yet we never learned what became of the young reporter until Rice’s third novel when we got ALL of the details.
“The Story of Daniel, the Devil’s Minion, or the Boy from Interview with the Vampire“ from Queen of the Damned
In 1988’s Queen of the Damned, we learned in Part 1, Chapter 4, a chapter called “The Story of Daniel, the Devil’s Minion, or the Boy from Interview with the Vampire” that the anonymous boy went searching for Lestat after his fateful interview with Louis in San Francisco in 1973. We also now had a proper name for him—Daniel Molloy. Lestat was slumbering at the time of Daniel’s search, and he didn’t find the undead French aristocrat. Instead, the Vampire Armand finds Daniel while he searches for Lestat, during a time when Armand made New Orleans his home. No other vampires lived there, as Lestat had long ago gone to sleep. Armand had “cleaned out” the city of any younger vampires. No one else dared to call New Orleans home at this time, as it was Armand’s territory.
Scanning Daniel’s thoughts upon encountering him, Armand discovered this young mortal boy knew his name, and his true vampiric nature, and became fascinated. He began stalking him, and no matter what city or country Daniel ran to, Armand would find him. At first, he casually threatened to kill him if he ever published his book. Yet Armand continued to allow Daniel to live for his own amusement. Then something unexpected happened. After years of this cat and mouse chase, Armand came to actually love the mortal Daniel. Together, Armand and Daniel experienced an endless litany of mortal life, everything from underground salons to Time Bandit to long-distance calling France together. Even so, Armand constantly refused to give Daniel the Dark Gift, no matter how much he begged.
Daniel, Armand, and the Night Island
Many years into their relationship, Armand decided to become “incalculably wealthy.” Using his knowledge of where old ships with treasure lay at the bottom of the ocean, he recruited Daniel, who now saw himself as “the Devil’s Minion,” to help him procure wealth. All while he was asleep during the day. With this fortune, Armand, with forged documents Daniel helped him create, purchased an island off the coast of Florida. Armand turned it into an entertainment and shopping paradise that came alive only after dark, called The Night Island.
Armand and Daniel lived at Night Island for years in the Vampire Chronicles. Daniel had everything he wanted from Armand, the finest clothes, the newest cars, all except the one thing he wanted most—to become a vampire himself. This caused friction between them and periodically, Daniel would run away from Armand and Night Island, only to find mostly disaster on his own and come crawling back home.
However, in one instance of running away from Armand, Daniel left for too long and drove his body into such a state that he was dying. Then, the 500-year-old vampire gave him what he wanted at last and turned him. The Devil’s Minion turning scene in The Queen of the Damned is truly one of the most romantic scenes ever, it bears mentioning. In his mind, Armand brings Daniel to the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, where Armand first drank Daniel’s blood when he was a mortal, and under a starlit sky, with the scent of flowers everywhere, Armand turns Daniel into a vampire.
As Armand feared, however, making Daniel a vampire would only serve to drive a bigger wedge between them.
Daniel and Armand in AMC’s Interview with the Vampire
All we know from the AMC Interview with the Vampire series is that sometime after Daniel reveals to Louis the truth about Armand, and how he planned to let his Paris coven execute him along with Claudia, he turns Daniel into a vampire. But when did this happen? We don’t know yet. Do Interview with the Vampire‘s Daniel and Armand engage in a relationship similar to the one they had in the books? There doesn’t seem enough time for that intense love/hate relationship to have happened offscreen. Unless there is one further wrinkle to Daniel and Armand’s story that Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat is waiting to spring on us.
We know from episode five of season two of the series, that Armand encountered Daniel back in 1973, interrupting Louis almost killing Daniel. Not only encountered him, but very nearly killed him, and erased his memories of the event. Yet he clearly had a fascination with Daniel, and Interview with the Vampire leaves space for the possibility that the pair had a relationship decades ago. One that Armand could have then wiped from Daniel’s mind. After all, there is a limited series AMC announced called The Night Island. Could this series, at least in part, involve Interview with the Vampire‘s Armand and Daniel and their relationship? It is getting closer.
Devil’s Minion in The Vampire Lestat
In The Vampire Lestat, Devil’s Minion is shaping up to become a true romance. In episode four of the series, Armand confesses his love to Daniel, a sentiment that even Armand did not fully intend to express. Assad Zaman tells us of the moment, “I think it comes out, it’s an honest confession that, ‘Yes, you can hate me, you can hate me for what I did. I manipulated you. I turned you, I did some fucked up shit, but that pretending to let you manipulate me… That’s not true. You think you were under my spell, actually, I was under your spell. That’s why you were able to free everyone,’ and maybe that’s part of it… So yeah, it’s a really tender moment that comes out.”
We also learn a little bit about Daniel’s turning, although we likely won’t see it in full until season four of The Vampire Lestat. And what we learn is that Armand turned Daniel on an airplane (in Newark) and then ran away. For whatever reason, he couldn’t wait until Daniel landed or got to NYC proper. Was Daniel dying the way he is in Anne Rice’s Devil’s Minion chapter in Queen of the Damned? We can’t yet say with certainty.
Additionally, we learn that Daniel and Armand’s vampire bond manifests in a unique, powerful way, even among vampires. Sometimes, when they connect, the whole world vanishes around them, literally, and they can only feel one another. We call that ROMANCE! Could that have to do with a secret past of Daniel drinking Armand’s blood? Again, we just don’t know.
Ultimately, there are lots of ways this story could go for Daniel and Armand, and we’re eager to see how Interview with the Vampire tackles this fan-favorite pairing going forward.
Originally published July 1, 2024.