What we know about Interview with the Vampire, the Vampire Chronicles tv series
The Interview with the Vampire tv series has been in the works for years now, but filming has finally taken place and we’re told the series will premiere fall 2022. Using the novel series’ title, The Vampire Chronicles, the tv show will follow vampires Lestat and Louis during their time in New Orleans.
Show stills have been shared by producing network AMC giving us much needed details on one of the most famous vampire couples. The Vampire Chronicles stars Australian Sam Reid set to portray vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, while Brit Jacob Anderson is playing Louis de Pointe du Lac, Lestat’s vampire protégé.
The seven episode series has been filmed in New Orleans and we can deduce from the production stills that some of the action will focus on the turn of the century. In one shot we can see an early automobile, and there’s a significant character who was cast and included in a set photo. References to a blues singer also allude to a time after the birth of blues, and the presence of an electric microphone and amplification would suggest the era could approach the 1920s.
That blues singer is Antoinette, played by Maura Grace Athari (see the photo) who we’re told has a relationship with Lestat which “disrupts our two vampires’ domestic tranquility.”
This is a curious point because the homoerotic relationship between Lestate and Lous has often gone unsaid, but here we are given a female character to distract Lestat. We could have hoped in this modern era that the relationship between the two vampires could have been much more romantic and sexual. It’s still possible that most of the affection comes from Louis (and there are no complaints there), while Lestat is possibly bisexual, or treats making other vampires a non-sexual thing.
Interestingly the show had the approval and involvement of the late author, and more importantly Christopher Rice is said to have been heavily involved from day one. Christopher, a good author in his own right (though he sticks to murder mysteries, and has avoided lead gay characters since his early books), and of course he’s gay, so here’s hope there will be some gay action between the leads, if not significant gay characters throughout.
The producers have been open to casting the characters more broadly (and abroad) which might have an impact on the plot, the homoerotic undertones were quite clear in the original work. Louis meets the ‘young’ reporter in a dark San Francisco bar (we’ve been to some of those). Rice herself said in a 2012 interview that Louis and Lestat were the “first vampire same-sex parents.” We eventually got gay characters in the Vampire Chronicles universe, partly because we’ve always existed in history and are more likely to have become vampires over the years.
Other details have emerged with the production stills do confirm. As the character of reporter Daniel was cast (played by Eric Bogosian), we know some of the series will feature Louis’ conversation, the ‘Interview’. It is possible the series will start in modern day (or recently) with Louis explaining his past. In the books, Louis becomes a vampire in the 1700s when the plantation owner caught the eye of the Vampire Lestat. We have a history of Lestat being cast by certain leading men—Anne Rice envisioned Rutger Hauer to play the Lestat, and while Sam Reid is handsome, Jacob makes for a beautiful and fresh face for our new Louis.
The time period in the photos remains interesting. All the photos seem to focus on the particular era, and we don’t we anything earlier to suggest when Louis was turned. There are so few details about the
No trailer has so far been released, but a short teaser was made available. And the series premiere date is only vaguely fall 2022, possibly around Halloween or November. We don’t see faces, or fangs, in the teaser, but it sets the stage for an era in New Orleans featuring electric lights and motor cars.
Photo Credit: Alfonso Bresciani/AMC