Is AMC’s The Talamasca Setting Up A Beloved Anne Rice Storyline (and Crossover?)

This week, AMC’s latest series in their Anne Rice Immortal Universe, Anne Rice’s The Talamasca, cast Downton Abbey alum Elizabeth McGovern in a major role as the head of the secretive organization’s New York Motherhouse. McGovern’s casting was just the latest for the series, coming soon after the casting of William Fichtner as another member of The Talamasca who has been positioned as a bit of an antagonist, having assumed control and influence over the organization’s London Motherhouse. The two castings have seemingly set up the possible hero/villain dynamic for the series, but it is possible that it may also be doing something a little bit more: Anne Rice’s The Talamasca could be laying the groundwork for a major crossover with Interview With the Vampire by setting up their own take on The Tale of the Body Thief.

Given that Anne Rice’s The Talamasca hasn’t debuted yet — the show doesn’t even begin production until October — this really is speculation, but there are a few clues that could tease a much bigger direction for things that would ultimately lead to crossover potential with future seasons of Interview With the Vampire. Let me start by explaining what exactly The Tale of the Body Thief is. The fourth novel in Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, The Tale of the Body Thief sees Lestat having become depressed and remorseful about being a vampire and tries to alter his ways by only killing those who are “bad”, such as murderers and other criminals. He is also deeply haunted by nightmares of Claudia. Because he is deeply depressed, Lestat attempts to take his own life by walking into the desert at dawn, but he fails and goes to England to the home of his friend — and head of the Talamasca — David Talbot to heal. It’s there he meets Raglan James who offers Lestat something extraordinary: he will trade bodies with him for a day so that Lestat can be human again, albeit briefly. As you might imagine, Raglan isn’t being honest and he actually steals Lestat’s body, leaving Lestat stuck in one dying of pneumonia. In the end, David and Lestat manage to track Raglan down and get his body back. David also ends up in a young man’s body and as for Raglan, the body thief, he meets his end.

While the general plot description of The Body Thief doesn’t sound like something that Anne Rice’s The Talamasca is setting up, there are a few things to consider. The first is that the new series is a wholly new creation — meaning that it is not directly based upon any book and, perhaps more than that, we’ve already been introduced to the Immortal Universe’s version of Raglan James as it is with the character appearing in Season 2 of Interview With the Vampire as a current member of the Talamasca. With these things in mind, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to consider that Anne Rice’s The Talamasca could expand on the story and make some changes that would lead into a crossover.

In the casting announcement for McGovern, it was noted her Helen is the head of the New York Motherhouse but has long suspected that London’s Motherhouse has fallen under the influence of traitorous elements with a mysterious death prompting her to recruit Guy Anatole (Nicholas Denton) who will become her protege. We already know that Fichtner’s casting connects there as his Jasper is the “mysterious American who has quietly assumed control and influence over the Talamasca’s London Motherhouse” with “his charm and righteous sense of purpose are as dangerous as the power he’s pursuing.” It is possible that Jasper could be connected, somehow, to Raglan’s scheming as well. In the novels, Raglan was in the Talamasca for some time but was ultimately kicked out for theft. What if Jasper is somehow a part of Raglan’s machinations? Or, perhaps, simply turning a blind eye as the would-be body thief’s thefts benefit Jasper’s pursuit of power in some way? If Jasper is the “traitorous element”, it’s not strange to think that he could be colluding with Raglan to use the resources and power of the Talamasca for their own gains — power in Jasper’s case, immortality in Raglan’s.

While this would be something of a departure from Rice’s novel to be sure, it would give the new series something a bit familiar for fans of her work which could serve as a jumping on point for the otherwise completely original series. It would also provide an avenue to tell the story a bit more easily as, when it comes to existing canonical members of the Talamasca as an organization, the only one that exists in the Immortal Universe at the moment is Raglan and he has direct connection to David Molloy, having covertly met with him in Dubai during Season 2 of Interview With the Vampire. Since none of the series (to date) have David Talbot as a character which would function as the connection between the Talamasca and Lestat, using Raglan by way of Daniel Molloy could work.

Admittedly, it is a little bit of a stretch, but as we’ve already seen in both Interview With the Vampire and Mayfair Witches, AMC’s Immortal Universe doesn’t shy away from making significant changes to the details of Rice’s stories in order to capture their spirit. By using Helen’s suspicions of Jasper and what’s going on in London as a springboard in the right way, Anne Rice’s The Talamasca could very well give viewers a new version of The Tale of the Body Thief that would be both a fascinating story for the new series and make for a great way to build a crossover with Interview With the Vampire. After all, I somehow don’t think we’ve seen the last of Raglan James.