So far, Talamasca: The Secret Order hasn’t had much to do with the other shows in AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe, outside of a cameo from Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy from Interview with the Vampire. But hidden in the opening sequence of Talamasca episode three, there is something that might just hint at the future adaptations of Anne Rice’s vampire novels and links into Interview with the Vampire. In the third episode, we learn that in the early ’70s, a great fire burned through the Talamasca’s central library in Amsterdam, destroying a thousand years of archives. One of the pages we see burning in this Talamasca scene contains mentions of several core vampire characters, one of which we already know well — the Vampire Armand, played by Assad Zaman in Interview with the Vampire.
Talamasca‘s Episode 3 Easter Egg Focuses on Interview with the Vampire‘s Armand and His Maker Marius
The page we see on fire in Talamasca seems written in Old English, suggesting a medieval or Renaissance period. The script on this Talamasca artifact mentions the beauty of Amadeo, the name given to Armand by his vampire maker, the ancient Roman, Marius. In the books, Armand was originally a Russian slave (changed to Indian for the TV series), named Andrei. In the Interview with the Vampire series, his name became Arun or Arjun. When Marius bought him from cruel slave owners, he became mesmerized by his beauty and named him Amadeo, Latin for “Loved by God.” When a Satanic coven kidnapped Amadeo and brainwashed him 500 years ago, they bestowed the name Armand upon him. The few lines of dialogue in this Talamasca Easter egg actually perfectly echo Marius’ descriptions of Amadeo in his vampire memoir, Blood and Gold by Anne Rice.
In Blood and Gold, Rice wrote of Marius meeting Armand, “And there I saw beauty, beauty which has always been my downfall, beauty as in Pandora, as in Avicus, as in Zenobia, as in Bianca, beauty in a new and celestial form. Heaven had cast down upon this stone floor an abandoned angel, of auburn curls and perfectly formed limbs, of fair and mysterious face.” And in the Talamasca excerpt, we can clearly see something that reads closely to, “Amadeo, in him I see beauty… as in Pandora, in a new and celestial form.” Clearly, Marius and Armand’s complex relationship feels worth highlighting in this Talmasca Easter egg, a fascinating tease as we get closer to season three of Interview with the Vampire / The Vampire Lestat and whatever it might hold for Armand.
Anne Rice’s Vampire, Pandora, Get Her First Mention in Talamasca
The other vampire mentioned alongside Amadeo/Armand in the burning manuscript we see in Talamasca is Pandora. It’s hard to make out what it says about her, but her name is clearly visible. Marius sired Pandora in ancient Rome, and she is nearly 2,000 years old. Described as a woman with luxurious and long brown hair, Pandora was Marius’ immortal companion for many centuries, long before he met Armand. She first emerged in the modern day in Rice’s third vampire novel, The Queen of the Damned. In that story, she stands with several other ancient undead to oppose Akasha, the mother of all vampires. The character received her own novel in 1998, simply titled Pandora. It was one of two vampire novels published by Rice that year, with the second being The Vampire Armand.
We haven’t yet met Pandora or even heard of her in the Interview with the Vampire AMC series. But this inclusion of Pandora in the Talamasca certainly hints that she is on the mind of the Immortal Universal, as is Armand and his backstory.
Marius Is on the Way in Interview with the Vampire‘s World, and Perhaps Pandora Will Soon Follow
AMC has already cast Marius for the upcoming The Vampire Lestat; he’ll be played by Christopher Heyerdahl. But these hints in Talamasca: The Secret Order, alongside what we’ve already learned from the series, suggest his backstory with Armand will remain intact from Rice’s novels. Pandora has not yet been cast, as far as we know. But as we mentioned, this shows she’s definitely on the creative team’s radar as we approach future seasons. As mentioned, Pandora is one of the many vampires we first meet in The Queen of the Damned. So theoretically, should we get that far in Rice’s narrative in a future season, Pandora will be there. We learned at NYCC that season three of Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat will pull from some parts of Queen of the Damned, but which parts exactly remain to be seen. (We know which ones we’d like to see.)
So we say, let the fan-casting commence, we say! In the meantime, we’re just going to watch the trailer for The Vampire Lestat again for the 200th time. Who knows, maybe Pandora is in the crowd of one of Lestat’s concerts in the trailer? Can anyone out there spot her? We bet money Armand is definitely lurking somewhere there.
Talamasca: The Secret Order releases weekly on Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. Interview with the Vampire season three will arrive in 2026.