AMC renews Interview With The Vampire for season 2, reveals Mayfair Witches pics

The final season of The Walking Dead may be about to air on AMC, but that isn’t stopping the network from launching its next ambitious franchise. Next month, AMC will debut its new Interview With The Vampire show, based on the bestselling Vampire Chronicles novels by Anne Rice.

AMC is feeling pretty confident that people will take to the story of moody vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), his immortal partner Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) and their adoptive vampire daughter Claudia (Bailey Bass). Per Deadline, the network has already renewed Interview With The Vampire for a second season.

“The scope and breadth of this show, and what [producer Mark Johnson and showrunner Rolin Jones] have delivered, is just stupendous. They have rendered the rich and vibrant world of Anne Rice’s Interview in a wonderful way, and we’re incredibly proud.  From the set build, to production design, costumes and more — no detail was overlooked. This stellar cast deliver powerful performances that emotionally connect us to these characters and their humanity,” said Dan McDermott, president of original programming for AMC Networks and AMC Studios. “We look forward to sharing the final product of this extraordinary effort with audiences in just a few short days and are thrilled that this story will continue. This is only the beginning of an entire Universe featuring enthralling stories and characters that capture the spirit of Anne Rice’s amazing work.”

The next big cinematic universe is afoot. What will this one be called? The Monsterverse is already taken, so…the Vampireverse? The Spookyverse? The Riceverse?

AMC reveals first images of The Mayfair Witches

Part of the reason that AMC is taking this broader cinematic universe-based approach to Anne Rice’s work is because the author did as much herself. Beyond Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, she also had another series called Lives of the Mayfair Witches which tied into the adventures of Lestat and company. AMC is doing a show about the Mayfair Witches as well; the first season of that one hits in January, scarcely a couple of months after Interview With The Vampire season 1 ends.

AMC has just released its first images from Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches. Let’s check them out:

Here we have Alexandra Daddario as Dr. Rowan Fielding, a neurosurgeon who discovers she is the “unlikely heir to a family of witches.” With her is Harry Hamlin as Cortland Mayfair, the patriarch of the witchy family.

A few more of those two:

Some more images of Daddario as Dr. Rowan Fielding. She will be a huge focus in the show.

It looks like Rowan may have hit a crow. Or maybe a crow dropped dead out of the sky onto her car?

Next up, we have Beth Grant as Carlotta Mayfair:

And lastly, Tongayi Chirisa as Ciprien Grieve:

Ciprien is a new character created for the series who doesn’t appear in Rice’s novels; there’s been a lot of speculation about what role he’ll play.

Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches is expected to premiere in January 2023.

Jacob Anderson talks playing Louis in Interview With The Vampire

Back to Interview With The Vampire, let’s hear a little bit from the main vamp himself. Game of Thrones veteran Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm) will be playing Louis in AMC’s adaptation, and with the show premiering in only a few short days, he’s out there hyping it up. Anderson’s Louis will be a bit different than the character in both the novel and the 1994 movie, where he was played by Brad Pitt.

Some of the changes have to do with the fact that AMC’s Interview With The Vampire will take place several centuries later, beginning in 1910. The other factor is that Anderson is Black; in Rice’s book, Louis is a southern plantation owner during the late 1700s. Transplanting that backstory onto a Black actor would be a thorny issue, so the show is taking a different approach. Instead, it will explore how Louis navigates work and life in early 1900s New Orleans before he’s turned into a vampire.

“This version of Louis De Pointe Du Lac, he’s maybe got slightly more fire in his belly. He is more likely to fight back against Lestat,” Anderson told Yahoo! News. “Novel Louis, as much as I love him, he complains about Lestat more. I love him though. I’m not trying to take anything away from it. I think he’s just got a little bit more backbone—with love.”

As with any show that seeks to add more diversity to its cast, there’s been a predictable backlash to Anderson playing a character who was white in the novel and previous adaptation. It sounds like Anderson isn’t sweating it. “I love playing Louis. I love playing this version of Louis. Louis was always creole, but now he’s Black creole,” he explained. “And it’s very much a part of the story and I’m very proud of that. In terms of backlash, I don’t want to give them any more time than they’re already getting.”

Hear, hear.

Interview With The Vampire premieres on AMC and AMC+ on October 2.

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