The Vampire Lestat Press Convention

Throughout San Diego Comedian-Con, io9 was invited to a press convention for The Vampire Lestat, the most recent Anne Rice Immortal Universe collection for AMC. And don’t get it twisted, this is not Interview With The Vampire season three; that is formally the Lestat present, as he takes the mic to inform his story and put some misconceptions about himself and his previous to relaxation—that’s, till they rise from the lifeless or awaken…

Star Sam Reid (Lestat de Lioncourt) was joined by Jacob Anderson (Louis de Pointe du Lac), Eric Bogosian (Daniel Molloy), and the present’s artistic group to interrupt down the slew of bulletins and teases scorching off the SDCC panel. Fans of the show will recall that season two of Interview With the Vampire ended with a seeming reconciliation between Lestat and Louis, however their honeymoon section was possible short-lived as soon as Daniel Molloy truly revealed his ebook, if the teaser screened on the conference is any indication.

It cold-opens on Louis and Lestat in separation proceedings with their attorneys. “We’re in a divorce period.” Reid smiled. “The [Interview With The Vampire] ebook remains to be fairly a big hurdle to have gotten over. On the finish of season two, neither of them had learn the ebook, and so there’s clearly the fallout of that.”

Anderson jumped in, “That scene that you simply see within the teaser was mad. I received’t speak an excessive amount of about the entire scene, however I used to be a bit shaken after it… I used to be like, ‘What am I doing?’ I really feel like we needed to do a special factor in that scene than we’ve carried out earlier than.”

Reid continued, “Yeah, properly, you sort of have the historical past of two seasons and a number of earlier expertise and a number of weight like that that exists now between the 2 characters that we get to hold on to each scene, so it’s actually enjoyable that the layers simply develop into deeper and deeper. It’s actually enjoyable. There’s countless potentialities that you are able to do with these two characters [who] sort of actually burn one another’s homes down and rebuild them again collectively block by block, just for any person to come back in with a demolition crew and do it another time.”

And that somebody was Danny Boy Molloy along with his ebook. Molloy returns as he’s recruited to doc Lestat’s musical facet of the story in a visible medium by way of the Brat Prince’s phrases and music. And sure, there can be a number of songs about Louis and the fallout of their break-up.

“It’s the love of his life. How may he not be influenced by Louis in his songwriting?” revealed composer and music supervisor Daniel Hart, who mentioned he pulled musical influences from Led Zeppelin to Robert Plant, to classical to jazz, to even fashionable music. “I believe it’s truthful to say, and I believe I’m allowed to say, he’s written songs in season three particularly about Louis. You’ll know that they’re songs about Louis. There are different songs about many different topics. Lestat has many ideas and emotions. However once we had been engaged on the songs at the start, I believe the factor we discovered was probably the most useful in looking for music that may embody the spirit of Lestat, was to attempt to keep away from doing what most musicals are required to do, which is to additional the plot of their lyrics.”

Showrunner Rolin Jones elaborated that all of it involves a head as Lestat resides by way of fairly an identification disaster between “the performative vampire and precise vampire,” and defined that after an occasion in episode one, Lestat begins questioning all the pieces.

“There’s slightly little bit of the portrait of the artist and throwing your self on the market, proper? And you set this music on the market; you set, like, ‘That is how I’m going to inform my story. I’m gonna inform it this fashion’ This music is placing himself on the market as an artist [and] opens him as much as a stage of introspection that’s harmful, thrilling, very, very terrifying, and that he’s not ready for, and so you already know we’re in an actual Hamlet state of affairs right here. I believe that he’s going after the actually, actually massive issues, and I believe he’s charging ahead with abandon, and does that imply attempting to finish it? Don’t know. Does that imply he’s attempting to get to the opposite facet of this? What’s all this performing out? What is that this eager for extremity? This factor that’s inside him cracks all of it open.”

And because it’s been confirmed that Akasha’s blood is inside him, it begs the query if this thirst for the unknown is what may very well be driving him. We don’t know but who’s taking part in the Queen of the Damned, the primary of their vampire form; Jones has mentioned a proposal was made to an actress, however she has but to be revealed. Reid, nonetheless, performed it coy on whether or not or not Akasha’s affect performs an element in how Lestat takes to fame.

“With the blood of Akasha, does he really feel like he’s invincible? Mainly, sure, I’d say so, yeah, and to [a] fault. I believe he’s blindsided by how a lot energy that he has. I believe like an necessary key [about Lestat] when you might have that a lot energy, he doesn’t actually really feel lovable as a result of it seems like, ‘If I confirmed all the energy, folks would simply be frightened of me.’ That’s an enormous dynamic between [him and Louis] and [he] hides a lot of himself from Louis in order that he seems like he can’t be actually liked, after which it finally ends up being catastrophic in his personal proper. And for those who really feel invincible, why not dive headfirst into the concrete and see what occurs? And carrying alongside the results of that, it’s his crux, I suppose. It’s the place we start the season.”

The Vampire Lestat returns in 2026 on AMC.

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