Jacob Anderson teases "surprises" and "tension" ahead in Interview With The Vampire season 2

The first season of Interview With The Vampire aired on AMC in 2022 and immediately impressed fans everywhere; it was at once faithful to Anne Rice's classic novel while updating it in a respectful way for modern audiences. The action has moved from the late 18th century to the early 20th, there's more to the modern day segments where the vampire Louis (Jacob Anderson) tells his story to interviewer Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), and the gay subtext regarding Louis' relationship with Lestat (Sam Reid) is now full-blown text. When I first heard AMC was making an Interview With The Vampire show I wasn't sure one was needed. Now I can't wait for season 2. Season 1 ended with Louis and his vampiric daughter Claudia disposing of Lestat...or so it seemed. What happens next?

Jacob Anderson, who played Grey Worm on Game of Thrones before popping in Louis' fangs, revealed what he could to Entertainment Weekly. "The theme of season 2 is this idea of memory is a monster, and how memory and guilt can follow you around," he said. "When we meet Claudia and Louis in season 2, they're dealing with the psychological and literal repercussions of what they did together. With Louis, you definitely get a sense there was some hesitance on his part — he didn't really go through with it, he pulled back from the decision at the last minute, because he is very in love with this fellow monster. That creates tension between the two of them, Louis and Claudia, that they weren't exactly on the same page, so for those two to be together now in an unfamiliar territory creates a lot of drama."

It's true that Louis didn't follow through on the plan to kill Lestat, whatever he tells Daniel Molloy decades later in Dubai. That's a bit of a change from the source material, but considering how well the changes went over in season 1, I trust the show to handle this. "We definitely stick to the second half of the book, and I'd say it's faithful to the spirit and actually the literal plot," Anderson said. "I love the first book, but the second half is not quite as dense as the first half, so the writers this season have definitely expanded on ideas that are hinted at or suggested in the second part of the book."

The present-day sections are "explosive" in Interview With The Vampire season 2

The second half of the book involves Louis and Claudia traveling to Paris, where Claudia intends to find other vampires. And find them they do, including the vampire Armand (Assad Zaman), who as we learned in season 1 eventually becomes Louis' new partner.

"Their relationship is really interesting, and it's one of the things that I'm most excited about people seeing this season," Anderson said. "It really evolves and changes as they get to know each other. They definitely hit it off — they have a real chemistry when they first meet. Armand would appear to be very different to Lestat, and I think he's more than a rebound, let's put it that way. But there's definitely residual trust issues and perhaps dynamics repeated, but not necessarily in the way that you think. They just click and they're not even really sure why they're drawn to each other, but it's an ever-shifting relationship as the season goes on."

So in the past, we'll see how Louis and Armand meet. And Armand is already with Louis in the present-day sections in Dubai. Apparently a lot will be going on there. "The continuation of Dubai really opens everything up this season," Anderson said. "Dubai is really explosive. Dubai really took me by surprise this season. There's a lot going on there, and there are things that are a part of the wider series of books, but also things that are creations of the writers that makes complete sense to the characters that we know and love. It's a heavy season for those guys in the present."

Anderson smiles as he adds, "But we are also going to the theater, we're in Paris, we're in Eastern Europe, so it will be very familiar in all the same ways as the first season was, but also there will be surprises."

Interview With The Vampire fans will "fall in love" with Delainey Hayles as Claudia

This is also a huge season for Claudia, who can come more into her own now that Lestat isn't around to control her afterlife. "To me, so much of this season is about her," Anderson teased. "Claudia's in a very different headspace this season — she's got this drive now to find others like her. There's a different kind of maturity to the character, but also you feel her chafing against how she's seen in this very different environment to the one that she grew up in."

Again, I'm willing to go down whatever path the show chooses. If it's even a fraction as meaningful for the audience as it was for Anderson, we could be in for an epic season of TV. "There are things that I can't talk about in this season that were really challenging and really shocking to me, and I've learned a lot of things about Louis and myself," he said. "Another big theme in the show is that of endurance and resilience, and because of what Louis is experiencing this season, I've definitely learned that my own mind is more resilient than I thought it was. It's more robust. I can withstand more madness than I thought I could. It's been really fulfilling and challenging and fun."

Interview With The Vampire season 2 will be along sometime next year. EW said Anderson was filming the last couple of episodes during their interview.

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