Even amongst immortal vampires, deaths can occur. And in The Vampire Lestat, it’s shaping up to be a fairly violent season already. Some deaths, we know are coming from Anne Rice’s books, while others might take us by surprise. Join us as we keep track of the bloody business of being a vampire. Here are all the major character deaths we’ve seen so far in The Vampire Lestat. Warning for some discussion of dark themes below.
Lestat’s Maker Magnus Throws Himself Into the Fire
This The Vampire Lestat series death comes right from Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat book. After stalking Lestat, kidnapping him, and turning him against his will, Lestat’s Maker, Magnus, throws himself into the fire and dies. Granted, we don’t actually see this moment in The Vampire Lestat, but Daniel confirms it is so. Thus, Magnus leaves Lestat totally alone to navigate being a vampire and Lestat never even truly meets his Maker. But in The Vampire Lestat, we get to see Lestat reckoning with Magnus after his death in the song, “Your Biggest Fan.”
Daniel Hart told Nerdist about the song, “I thought, well, if he’s going to write a song about his transformation, then he should write it from the point of view of the person who transformed him. And since it was basically abduction and then abuse, and a rape of sorts, then that would be Lestat’s experience of it.”
And continues:
But the person who did those things, as can often be the case in real life, the person who is the tormentor, the predator, the abuser, doesn’t view themselves that way. And for Magnus, I don’t think he viewed himself that way at all, and either because he himself was so dark and twisted or because by that point in his own life, he had just basically lost his mind. So I thought, yeah, he wouldn’t think of himself as doing something terrible at all. He wasn’t torturing people. He was loving them. So I thought, oh, it’s a love song. Obviously, it’s a love song. So then I started writing a love song about abducting someone and then torturing them, and then it became the thing that it is.
But, [of course, the song] is really about Lestat’s version of what he thinks Magnus thought was happening. Since he barely knew him. The guy transformed him and then threw himself into a fire, and that was that.
Lestat’s First Love Nicki May or May Not Have Been Killed By Armand
In The Vampire Lestat, the readers learn in an “off-screen” scenario that Lestat’s first love and fledgling, Nicolas de Lenfent, cast himself into the fire and died. It’s implied that Armand drove this suicide by tormenting the already unstable Nicki, by, among other things, cutting off his musician hands.
In The Vampire Lestat, Nicki’s death remains off-screen, but its narrative changes from Anne Rice’s books. Lestat recounts Nicholas’ final moments to Daniel in The Vampire Lestat, narrating that Armand pushed Nicki into the fire and held him there until he died. Notably, in this version of events, Nicholas cuts his own hands off, and Armand isn’t responsible for, at the very least, that part of things.
But, as Joseph Potter, Nicholas’ actor, cautions us about the current iteration of Nicki’s death, “We don’t see it.” Make of that what you will.
The Vampire Bruce Meets Death at Louis’ Hands in The Vampire Lestat
The Vampire Bruce does exist in the world of Anne Rice and appears in Queen of the Damned, but he’s a very different character in AMC’s Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat. Primarily, we know Bruce to be Claudia’s torturer. When Claudia briefly leaves Lestat and Louis, Bruce kidnaps her and does unspeakable things, which make him worthy of way more than death.
In The Vampire Lestat, the Talamsca want Louis to destroy the Detroit coven that’s plaguing them. Louis refuses until they reveal to him that Bruce is the one running it. Like in Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned, Bruce is now the leader of the Fang Gang coven. And that’s enough to convince Louis to destroy them all.
After demolishing the coven and freeing their human “food,” Louis handily cracks Bruce’s spine and forces him to listen to everything he has to say. In a truly harrowing scene, Louis reads the missing pages from Claudia’s notebook to Bruce (as we also get images of Lestat’s torment at the hands of Magnus). Then, using the fire gift, Louis sets the pages aflame, drops them on Bruce’s head, and that’s it. Bruce, as we said, deserved more than just death in The Vampire Lestat, but we’re glad he got that much.
We Don’t Want Any More Deaths on The Vampire Lestat
Ultimately, we’re scared for our favs, and we don’t want any more death and destruction in The Vampire Lestat. Can’t we just have cheery, sweet vampiric times?
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.
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