Interview With the Vampire Showrunner Shares What Book Will Inspire Season 3
Rolin Jones says he would take on The Vampire Lestat next.
There are just two episodes remaining in the second season of Interview With the Vampire and while the AMC series has not yet been renewed for a third season, as the story largely adapted from Anne Rice's novel of the same name starts to conclude the overall world of the vampires has only just begun to open up. With 13 books in Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, should Interview come back for more, there's a wealth of stories to tell — but for showrunner Rolin Jones, he already knows which novel he would take on next, continuing the story with The Vampire Lestat.
"There's no green light. I can't talk about it," Jones said, noting AMC has not yet renewed Interview With the Vampire (via Collider). "I can only talk about this: The next book I would do would be The Vampire Lestat. I have no idea who makes the decisions about why things are titled what they are. I think it's called The Vampire Lestat. That's what I think it's called, so that's what I would like to make. We're already pulling from other books. We've pulled from The Vampire Lestat. We've pulled from The Queen of the Damned. We've pulled from The Vampire Armand. We've pulled a little bit or at least some seeds from The Body Thief. There's some stuff from Prince Lestat. We've read them. We're building this things as if they're all one giant thing."
What is The Vampire Lestat About?
Jones wanting to take on The Vampire Lestat for a potential third season makes sense if you've read Rice's novels. The book, first published in 1985, is the sequel to Interview With the Vampire. While Interview was narrated by Louis de Pointe du Lac, The Vampire Lestat is told from Lestat's point of view with the conceit of the novel being that it is Lestat's response to Louis' memories in Interview With the Vampire. The novel tells Lestat's history and origin story, including the founding of the Theatre des Vampires and his own version of the events of Interview With the Vampire. In particular, the novel expands the vampire culture and mythology of Rice's characters and further fleshes out the world setting up for novels to follow, such as The Queen of the Damned, the third book in the series.
AMC is Expanding Their Immortal Universe With The Talamasca
Even if a third season of Interview With the Vampire exploring The Vampire Lestat were to not come to fruition, AMC is still expanding its Immortal Universe based on Rice's works. As Jones noted, Interview With the Vampire has already drawn from other books in the series and has introduced elements that factor beyond just the stories of the vampires — specifically the secret organization The Talamasca. Season 2 of Interview saw the introduction of Raglan James (Justin Kirk), a Talamasca agent and beyond Interview, Mayfair Witches has already established the existence of the agency and just last week, AMC announced that a Talamasca series is coming to the Immortal Universe as well. That series is eyeing a 2025 release.
"This is a story we've been developing and wanting to tell from the earliest moments of this franchise, focused on a fascinating and compelling secret society that has already appeared in both of our existing Anne Rice series, the Talamasca," said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks, in a statement when the series was announced. "As with all of these shows, we are thrilled to have such a high level of talent involved, represented here by John Lee Hancock and Mark Lafferty, and of course working closely with producer Mark Johnson as the creative head of our Anne Rice Immortal Universe."
Interview With the Vampire airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.
