Mayfair Witches Cast, Showrunners Reveal if They Believe in Magic (Exclusive)

Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches debuted on AMC and AMC+ last week with the latest installment of the network's Immortal Universe proving to be a big hit. The series is AMC+'s biggest ever series premiere. The new series, which is set in the same general universe as Interview With the Vampire, follows a young neurosurgeon, Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) who discovers that she is the unlikely heir to a family of witches and, as she grapples with her newfound powers, she also finds herself contending with a sinister presence who has haunted her family for generations. With the series dealing with magic and witchcraft and being set and filmed in New Orleans, we asked the cast and showrunners if they themselves believe in magic.

Showrunner and series co-creator Esta Spalding told ComicBook.com that, for her, her experiences making the series made her more of a believer than she was before.

"I'm going to tell you that having gone to shoot this in New Orleans, I came out the other side believing a lot more than I did before," Spalding said. "I lived right near Anne Rice's house where she lived when she wrote this. And again, I felt there were crows that would circle around and land there. And always felt like, 'Please send Anne a message. Tell here we're trying really hard to get this right,' The world feels more magical when you're in that city and I'm a believer."

Annabeth Gish, who plays Deirdre, also said that she is a believer in magic — and that it is her belief in magic that drew her to The Witching Hour — the novel Mayfair Witches is based on — decades ago.

"Unequivocally yes, but I always have, and I think that's what drew me to this story years ago, and also to things like The X-Files," Gish said. "Yes, I do believe in magic, and I really do. I think magic can be used for good and bad. I'm not woo-wooey… but yes. How can there not be?"

It isn't just the women of Mayfair Witches who believe in magic, either. Tongayi Chirisa and Jack Huston both told ComicBook.com at New York ComicCon last year about their belief in magic.

"I'm African," Chirisa said. "Witches are real."

"It's one interpretation of what a witch is," Huston said. "I always said my aunt was a witch, my wife is very witchy, but when I say my aunt, I mean she's like apothecary, sort of like that, sort of like a midwife. Like, you know, like the earth, healers."

What is Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches about?

The series is based on Anne Rice's trilogy of novels, Lives of The Mayfair Witches. The series synopsis is as follows: "Based on Anne Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches, Mayfair Witches is an exploration of female power and the mortal implications of our decisions.  Mayfair Witches focuses on an intuitive young neurosurgeon (Alexandra Daddario) who discovers that she is the unlikely heir to a family of witches. As she grapples with her newfound powers, she must contend with a sinister presence that has haunted her family for generations."

"The first season starts where the book starts, in that mood of New Orleans and the sort of ghost story of this house," Spalding previously said about the series. "We meet really quickly Rowan Fielding who's the main character of the first book and through the series."

She continued, "The middle section is about 300 or 400 pages of 13 generations of witches going all the way back to Scotland. We used a piece of that, and then we feel like we're gonna save some of that great story and saga of all the different generations for later seasons, should we be so lucky."

Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC and AMC+.