When the Vampire Lestat Is Set in the Interview With a Vampire Timeline (& Do You Need to Watch That First?)

AMC’s Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe returned in a huge way on Sunday with the debut of The Vampire Lestat. The eagerly awaited series is actually the third season of the network’s Interview With The Vampire now rebranded as The Vampire Lestat. The rebrand is for a good reason; while the first two seasons largely adapted Rice’s Interview With the Vampire novel and gave audiences Louis de Pointe du Lac’s (Jacob Anderson) version of events, The Vampire Lestat takes on that titular novel and gives Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) his say as well as depicts the consequences of Louis’ interview. It’s a wild tonal shift, an epic story, and thus far one of television’s best series with a rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with an audience score that’s nearly as high.

However, there’s also been a little bit of confusion about The Vampire Lestat. While the series is technically the third season of an existing television show, it’s also being treated as an entirely separate entity. This has led to some question about where exactly the story fits in the overall Interview With the Vampire timeline and, perhaps more importantly, if newcomers to the story really need to watch seasons one and two first. We’re here to break it all down for you.

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The Vampire Lestat’s Story Spans More Time Than You Think (But Definitely Follows Interview With the Vampire)

As is the case with Interview With the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat technically takes place over a large number of years. Just as Louis told his story about becoming a vampire and incorporated years form his human life as well as the years he spent with Lestat and those after it, The Vampire Lestat will also take audiences into his own story, with upcoming episodes expected to reveal moments from his own mortal life centuries before “current” events. However, in terms of when the main events of The Vampire Lestat take place, that’s a bit more direct. The events of the series take place following the publication of Daniel Molloy’s (Eric Bogosian) book, but there is also a bit of nuance in how the season is structured.

The series kicks off in the near future at an auction of The Vampire Lestat’s recordings and there are some events that are suggested to have happened that are the “future” in terms of the television series. What audiences are then dropped into are the events leading up to that, starting in the Spring of 2025. This creates the framework for how Lestat is telling us his life story as well as the story about his turn as a rock star. In terms of timeline, this places the series firmly as a continuation of Interview With the Vampire, just from a different perspective—which is in keeping with Rice’s novel as well.

Yes, You Need to Watch Interview With the Vampire First (Here’s Why)

So, if The Vampire Lestat is a continuation of the story from Interview With the Vampire, but it’s also from a different perspective, do you really need to watch both seasons of Interview With the Vampire first? While some people have been suggesting that you can treat The Vampire Lestat as a standalone series, the truth is that Interview With the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat are so connected that not only would you be missing a lot of important details and context by skipping the first two seasons, but you’d be missing a great series as well. There are characters and events from Interview With the Vampire that are referenced and included even in the first episode of The Vampire Lestat, which means if you haven’t seen Interview, you’re not going to get some of the jokes or important narrative threads.

You also need to watch the first two seasons to fully understand both who Lestat is as well as why he’s so upset about Louis and Daniel’s book. The portrait that Louis paints of Lestat is very specific and it’s also not how Lestat sees himself. One of the things that Interview makes clear is that Louis is an unreliable narrator, and that is something that Lestat reinforces as he starts setting the record straight. It’s also clear that Lestat is himself an unreliable narrator so having seen the first two seasons will help you find the truth in the middle. Additionally, just based off the opening scene of The Vampire Lestat, having a firm grasp on the events of Interview and the complicated relationships of the central characters is going to be very important during the rest of the season.

It’s also worth suggesting that you should read both Interview With the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat (and, if you’re really into it, The Queen of The Damned). While Rice’s books are very different from the television series—the series makes some shifts and changes in terms of timeline and setting—the core of the story is there and if you really want to feel like you have a grasp on The Vampire Lestat, the books make for a great reference. However, if you don’t want to be spoiled about a few shocking moments, well, maybe hold off on the reading until after the season finale because, as The Vampire Lestat says, there is much to unpack.

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