Over two seasons so far, AMC's Interview With the Vampire TV show has adapted the events of novelist Anne Rice's series The Vampire Chronicles, which began with 1976's Interview With the Vampire. (Previous adaptations of her work include the 1994 film Interview With the Vampire, the 2002 film Queen of the Damned, and the poorly received Broadway musical Lestat.) The horror/drama stars Jacob Anderson as Louis de Pointe du Lac (the vampire being interviewed) and Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt, Louis' maker and lover, along with Eric Bogosian as journalist Daniel Molloy, to whom Louis is telling his life story. Despite not being easy to access for those who don't have cable or subscribe to the network's streaming service, AMC+, the series is a critical success and has amassed a passionate fanbase.
The first season of Interview With the Vampire takes place both in modern-day Dubai, where Louis is reflecting on his past, and in 1910s New Orleans, where still-human Louis meets an intriguing and seductive French gentleman who'll change the course of his life. In Season 2, the past action is set in post-World War II France, and it sounds as though the recently announced Season 3 will be a globe-trotting affair.
And it seems that the network is all in on what it's calling the "Immortal Universe." In addition to Interview With the Vampire, AMC is home to the show Mayfair Witches, which is adapted from Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches and soon returning for a second season. And a third series in the franchise is also on its way. The Talamasca will focus on the secret society tracking the supernatural, of which IWTV fans already got a taste in Season 2.
Whether you're coming to the Interview With the Vampire series as a fan of the books or not, there are plenty of human and inhuman characters to keep track of. Read on for a cast and character guide to the AMC hit, including the new additions coming in Season 3. Spoilers ahead!
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Interview With the Vampire Season 1 Cast and Characters
Jacob Anderson as Louis de Pointe du Lac
AMC
When we first meet him in 1910, Louis de Pointe du Lac is still human—a brothel owner struggling with the racism of the period and the disapproval of his family. Even after Lestat gives him "the dark gift" of immortality and they begin living as eternal companions, Louis is reluctant to embrace the life of a killer, putting the two at odds. Despite all their differences, Louis and Lestat share a passionate connection that is not easily severed.
Anderson comes to the series from roles in Game of Thrones, Broadchurch, and Doctor Who.
Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt
AMC
Australian actor Sam Reid (Belle, The Newsreader) plays Lestat, who is the main character of the majority of the Vampire Chronicles books and in quite a co-dependent relationship with Louis. He's much older, having been born in the 18th century, and has little regard for human life. (Though, that was not always the case.) He is, however, quite fond of music, which will play a big role in the third season of the series.
Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy
AMC
After meeting Louis in San Francisco when he was a young man, Daniel Molloy is invited to the vampire's penthouse in the present day to take down Louis' life story and turn it into a book. The human journalist is now in his 70s, diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and estranged from his wife and children. Daniel doesn't just listen passively, but often pushes back on Louis' recollections to ensure that he's telling the truth.
Bogosian is a writer and actor who's also appeared in Succession, Uncut Gems, and Billions.
Bailey Bass as Claudia
AMC
In Season 1, Claudia is played by Bailey Bass (Avatar: The Way of Water). She's a 14-year-old girl whom Louis rescues from a boarding house fire, though she's on the brink of death. Louis begs Lestat to save her by turning her into a vampire, and he eventually agrees. The three live as a something of a family, though Claudia becomes frustrated that she is stuck in the body of a child, and that Lestat has so much control over her and Louis.
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Assad Zaman as Rashid/Armand
AMC
For most of the first season, Daniel knows stage and screen actor Assad Zaman's character as Rashid, Louis' faithful (if judgmental) servant in Dubai. But he remembers in a dream that "Rashid" was also there when he and Louis first met, decades prior, and that he looked exactly the same. "Rashid" is actually the Vampire Armand, Louis' companion of the past 70+ years.
Kalyne Coleman as Grace de Pointe du Lac
AMC
His transformation separates Louis from his family, which includes his sister, Grace. When he feels compelled to drink the blood of Grace's baby son, he knows he cannot safely be around them any longer.
Christian Robinson as Levi Freniere
AMC
Christian Robinson plays Grace's husband and father of her children, Levi. Their brother Paul doesn't approve of Levi for Grace, because he's a Baptist.
Rae Dawn Chong as Florence de Pointe du Lac
AMC
The Color Purple actor Rae Dawn Chong plays Louis' mother, Florence, who defends how he makes his money, even though it's not respectable. However, they become distant after a family tragedy strikes and the changes brought on by Louis' vampiric transformation begin to show.
Maura Grace Athari as Antoinette
AMC
Singer Antoinette is a source of conflict in Louis and Lestat's relationship. Louis is jealous of Lestat's affair with her and even more upset when Lestat reveals that he's turned her into a vampire, too.
Luke Brandon Field as Young Daniel Molloy
AMC
Young Daniel plays a bigger role in Season 2, but Season 1 includes a flashback to his first meeting with Louis at a gay bar in San Francisco. The Season 2 episode "Don't Be Afraid, Just Start the Tape," reveals everything that occurred immediately after that, when Louis invited the reporter back to his apartment, incurring Armand's wrath.
Damon Daunno as Bruce
AMC
After embarking on an indiscreet feeding frenzy in New Orleans, Claudia flees Louis and Lestat to find herself and, she hopes, other vampires. Unfortunately, she meets Broadway star Damon Daunno as Bruce, a vampires who victimizes her in a way that Louis won't speak about. She and Louis later use Bruce as an alibi, claiming to the coven they meet in Paris that he was their maker, not Lestat.
Steven G. Norfleet as Paul de Pointe du Lac
AMC
Paul is Louis and Grace's brother, who has been institutionalized for his mental health issues. In the premiere, he tragically throws himself off a roof in front of Louis, sending his brother spiraling into grief.
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Interview With the Vampire Season 2 Cast and Characters
Seeing no other way out of their circumstances, at the end of Season 1, Louis and Claudia hatch a plot to kill Lestat. They drug one of his kills, then Louis slits his throat, but he purposely doesn't burn his corpse, which is the only way to ensure his complete destruction. (Daniel calls him out on this in the present.) Louis and Claudia leave the country, traveling through Europe, following Claudia's desire to seek out and learn more about their kind, and eventually settling in postwar Paris.
This is where they meet Armand, who has been the leader of a coven that is also a theater troupe for many, many years—and who also has a romantic history with Lestat. As we already knew, Lestat is not gone for good. He appears to Louis in visions and eventually makes a grand reentrance into their lives.
Delainey Hayles as Claudia
AMC
Scheduling conflicts led to the recasting of Claudia, who is played by Delainey Hayles (Holby City) in Season 2. In France, she's determined to find a companion for herself, befriending a dressmaker who is an outcast due to her affair with a Nazi officer during the war. Claudia is thrilled at first to meet the members of the Théâtre des Vampires, but becomes infuriated and despondent when she is forced to play a little girl over and over again in one of their plays by the vengeful Santiago.
Ben Daniels as Santiago
AMC
While Armand leads the coven, Santiago is the troupe's star. Played by Ben Daniels (The Crown, Foundation), he masterminds the performances that also provide the coven with their victims. He has it out for Louis and Claudia, suspecting that they are not being truthful about their knowledge of Lestat, the company's co-founder.
Bally Gill as Rashid
AMC
Referred to by Daniel exclusively as "real Rashid," he is Louis and Armand's actual human butler in Dubai.
Roxane Duran as Madeleine
AMC
As previously mentioned, Madeleine is hated by her neighbors because of what she says she had to do to survive during the war. This leads to a friendship with Claudia, as they both live on the outskirts of society and feel that no one else understands them. She's played by French-Austrian actor Roxane Duran.
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Christopher Geary as Sam
AMC
There are many members of the Théâtre des Vampires, who all turn against Louis and Claudia when they find out that they've broken vampire law by killing Lestat. Of particular note is the Vampire Sam, who writes the play that serves as their trial and is the only security assigned to Armand, who claims he was held captive and made to watch—something that Daniel notes is fishy.
Joseph Potter as Nicolas de Lenfent
AMC
We briefly meet Lestat's pre-Armand, pre-Louis love, human musician Nicolas. More powerful than Lestat at that time, Armand accosts them in the street and accuses Lestat of not living up to his vampiric blood by meddling with a mortal. He knocks Nicolas out and takes him to the coven's lair to draw Lestat there.
Justin Kirk as Raglan James
AMC
Angels in America and Weeds star Justin Kirk appears in a couple of episodes as Raglan James, an agent of the Talamasca who approaches Daniel in a sushi restaurant and tells him that he works for an organization tracking vampires and warns of a "great conversion." He provides the reporter with information that leads to major revelations, for him and for Louis.
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Interview With the Vampire Season 3 Cast and Characters
Everything changes again in the last two episodes of Season 2. (Again, major spoilers!) Lestat returns (in style, of course) to take part in the trial at the Théâtre des Vampires, where Madeleine (who Louis has turned) and Claudia are executed on stage, as Louis looks helplessly on. Louis is banished and eventually rescued from his crypt by Armand, who claims to have saved Louis from Claudia's fate. Louis kills almost the entire coven in a rampage, but the Talamasca has provided Daniel with the script for the play, featuring notes in the margin by Armand—the director. Learning in the present that it was actually Lestat who telepathically compelled the audience to ask for his banishment, and that he would have done the same for Claudia if he had been strong enough, Louis finds Lestat back in New Orleans and they reconcile.
Meanwhile, Daniel's book is out, leading vampires all over the world to threaten to destroy Louis for exposing their secrets. Oh, and Armand has turned Daniel into a vampire, despite claiming that he had no interest in being a maker.
In the press release announcing Season 3, AMC revealed that it will pull from Rice's 1980 novel, The Vampire Lestat, in which the undead antihero becomes a rock star.
"In Season 3, resentful of the perfunctory portrayal in the trashy bestseller 'Interview With The Vampire,' the Vampire Lestat sets his story straight in a way only the Vampire Lestat can—by starting a band and going on tour," the release reads. "Gabrielle. Nicholas. Magnus. Marius. Those Who Must Be Kept. They join Louis, Armand, Molloy, Sam, Raglan, Fareed and others we can’t tell you about yet on a sexy pilgrimage across space, time and trauma. No Auto-Tuning. No Trigger Warnings. All Feels Amplified."
AMC has not announced any new casting for the next season yet, but let's take a look at the characters named in the synopsis and what we might expect from them, based on the books.
Ballantine
Gabrielle
Gabrielle is Lestat's mother, who was born to a rich Italian family and married a French nobleman, though they lived in poverty. Lestat is her youngest child and her favorite, and she gives up anything she can for him. They stay connected through letters when he moves to Paris, becoming an actor and coming into wealth as a vampire. When she is dying of consumption, Lestat turns her, making his mother his first fledging. She takes to vampire life as he did, and they live and travel together for a time.
Nicolas
Nicolas (or Nicki), whom we met in Season 2, is a big presence in The Vampire Lestat. In the book, they meet when Lestat is still human and make their way to Paris together. Lestat is kidnapped from their bed by his maker, the Vampire Magnus, who creates him. His newfound power and wealth complicates his relationship with Nicki, especially after Lestat turns Gabrielle, and Nicki feels that he's being left behind. However, being given the gift by Lestat doesn't make Nicki any happier.
Magnus
We've heard Magnus' name mentioned in the series already, including Lestat boasting that he has Magnus' blood running through his veins. (His crypt is also where Louis and Armand find Lestat in the Season 2 finale.) Lestat's maker was born sometime in the 15th century and became consumed over the years by the idea of finding an heir for his bloodline and his fortune, unhappy as he was in his vampire life. He spots Lestat when the latter is acting on stage and chooses him, transforming Lestat without his consent. Before purposely leaping into a pyre (something we saw a Romanian vampire do in Season 2), he leaves his wealth to his penniless fledging.
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Marius
In The Vampire Lestat, Marius de Romanus is the maker of Armand and more ancient than any of the vampires we've met thus far. (The book puts his birth around 1 B.C.) Lestat begins leaving messages for Marius as he's traveling with his mother, and Marius eventually visits him, sharing with him the origin story of all vampires.
Those Who Must Be Kept
And that's where Those Who Must Be Kept come in. (No, that's not the name of Lestat's band, unfortunately.) The title refers to Akasha, who was the queen of what would become Egypt in 5000 B.C., and Enkil, her husband. When an assassin attempts to kill both of them, an evil spirit called Amel enters Akasha's body and makes her the first-ever vampire. She subsequently turns Enkil through the method more commonly known. Because they are the source of all vampires in the world, anything that happens to Akasha and Enkil happens to all of their progeny. In The Vampire Lestat, Marius is guarding Those Who Must Be Kept, who have basically become statues, and warns Lestat to leave them be. Of course, he doesn't.
Rice's The Queen of the Damned picks up Akasha and Enkil's story after The Vampire Lestat. Aaliyah plays Akasha in the 2002 movie of the same name.
Conclusion
In the press release for the new season, AMC notes that they own the rights to 18 Anne Rice novels, meaning that this could only be the beginning when it comes to the adventures of Lestat, Louis, Armand, and more on your TV screen. A premiere date has not been announced for Interview With the Vampire Season 3, but it's likely to arrive sometime in 2025.
