Christian Slater Reveals He and Tom Cruise Were Surprised Interview with a Vampire Didn't Get a Sequel

Interview With the Vampire may be having its moment of glory on the small screen thanks to AMC's adaptation of Anne Rice's iconic novel of the same name starring Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson, but in 1994, Tom Cruise brought Lestat to life on the big screen in the film adaptation of the novel. However, despite being a box office success — and the first story in Rice's much larger Vampire Chronicles — the film didn't a sequel and it's something that star Christian Slater says surprised both himself and Cruise at the time.

Speaking with ComicBook.com in support of The Spiderwick Chronicles series coming to Roku on Friday, April 19th, Slater — who played Daniel Molloy, the interviewer int he film — revealed that both he and Cruise were surprised Interview didn't get a sequel, especially considering the first film ended with Cruise's Lestat biting Daniel.

"Tom Cruise and I were both surprised that Interview With a Vampire didn't get a sequel. That would have been fun," Slater said. "I mean, he did bite me at the end of that thing."

Joy Brant, who costars with Slater in The Spiderwick Chronicles, noted that in this era, a sequel would have definitely happened, something Slater agreed with.

"Yeah, in this era, for sure," he added.

A Second Vampire Chronicles Movie Was Made, Just Not a Sequel

Soon after Interview With the Vampire was released in 1994 and was a commercial success, the film's director Neil Jordan did begin developing an adaptation of the sequel novel, The Vampire Lestat. However, that film never materialized. In 2002, Queen of the Damned was released. That film, which did not see any of the stars of Interview With the Vampire return, combined elements of The Vampire Lestat novel with the third book in Rice's series, The Queen of the Damned, though it cut out various characters and plotlines. The film starred Stuart Townsend as Lestat and Aaliyah as the vampire Akasha. The film was both a critical and box office failure.

In 2016, it was announced that a reboot of Interview With the Vampire was in development, though that was also scrapped. Rice eventually regained the rights to The Vampire Chronicles novels and in 2021 it was announced that AMC was doing a television adaptation of Interview With the Vampire with Rolin Jones serving as showrunner and series creator and Mark Johnson, Alan Taylor, Anne Rice, and Christopher Rice serving as executive producers.

Interview With the Vampire Season 2 is Coming in May

The second season of AMC's Interview With the Vampire is set to premiere on May 12th. Here's how the network describes Season 2 of the hit series: "The interview continues in season two. In the year 2022, the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (Anderson) recounts his life story to journalist Daniel Molloy (Bogosian). Picking up from the bloody events in New Orleans in 1940 when Louis and teen fledgling Claudia (Hayles) conspired to kill the Vampire Lestat de Lioncourt (Reid), Louis tells of his adventures in Europe, a quest to discover Old World Vampires and the Theatre Des Vampires in Paris, with Claudia. It is in Paris that Louis first meets the Vampire Armand (Zaman). Their courtship and love affair will prove to have devastating consequences both in the past and in the future, and Molloy will probe to get to the truths buried within the memories.

Season two of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire is executive produced by award-winning producer Mark Johnson, creator and showrunner Rolin Jones, Alan Taylor, along with Christopher Rice and the late Anne Rice."

Season two of Interview With the Vampire debuts May 12th on AMC. The Spiderwick Chronicles debuts Friday, April 19th on Roku.