The Cast of Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches on How the Novel Influences the Series (Exclusive)

Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches will make its way to AMC and AMC+ in January with the television adaptation bringing to life the late Anne Rice's beloved Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy as part of the network's new Immortal Universe. That universe also includes Interview With the Vampire and as fans of that series have seen, while elements and core themes of that book are intact, the series itself makes quite a few changes and updates in terms of story and detail. The same will be true for Mayfair Witches. It's already been confirmed that Michael Curry, a major character in the novels, is not currently part of the adaptation and speaking with ComicBook.com at New York Comic Con about the upcoming series, Jack Huston and Harry Hamlin both spoke about how the series is in influenced by Rice's novel rather than a direct adaptation.

"I downloaded it. I saw that it was 56 hours long and I thought, do I have 56 hours, you know, and I listened to nine hours, and I realized that really what we have here is an interpretive show," Hamlin said about how he prepared for the series. "The characters are not exactly the same as they are in the book. The story's not exactly same. They've taken the whole ethos of the witches and The Witching Hour, the first book, and they. have compiled it into what is a really wonderful, engaging television show. It's not a book. It's a TV show."

When asked about the network's plans to adapt the other two books in the series, Lasher and Taltos, Huston said that the thinks there are indeed plans but also noted that not everything can go from page to screen, especially with books as rich as Rice's

"I think there's plans and question it's all gonna depend on you know, people's response to it. I think we've done something really daring. I think something very cool," Houston said.  "As Harry was saying, you know, the books themselves are dense. You know, brilliant, sort of like a literary feat, but you know, you can't put all of that in right TV series, but you can be inspired by it. You can be influenced and inspired in many ways. So, you know, I there's definitely plans, you know, in our first season finishes at the same point as The Witching Hour."

Houston also acknowledged the late author's impact on various franchises, not just with her Mayfair novels, but her Vampire Chronicles series as well.

"Anne Rice inspired many of the sort of more present sort of… such as the Twilight pictures," he said. "You realize when you're reading her work just how influential she was on certain writers and franchises and what not. I mean, she was also pretty daring and pretty out there."

What is Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches about?

Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches centers around Dr. Rowan Fielding (Alexandra Daddario), a brilliant neurosurgeon 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. Written by Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford, the series also stars Harry Hamlin, Annabeth Gish, Tongayi Chirisa, Beth Grant, Jen Richards, and Jack Huston.

"The first season starts where the book starts, in that mood of New Orleans and the sort of ghost story of this house," showrunner Esta 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 will now debut on Sunday, January 8th on AMC and AMC+.