What would San Diego Comic-Con be without the presence of Anne Rice‘s Immortal Universe? Since AMC‘s adaptation of the best-selling author’s Interview with the Vampire premiered its first season in 2022, the franchise has regularly haunted the halls of the San Diego Convention Center during the summer as it continued to expand with the launch of Mayfair Witches and Talamasca: The Secret Order. Now in year four, only two of those series remain, but both are going strong. The latter has Alexandra Daddario locked in to cast a spell over the network once more with Season 3 next year, while the former just wrapped its own third outing, now going under the name The Vampire Lestat in accordance with Rice‘s sequel novel.
With an apocalyptic finale so fresh in everyone’s memories, stars Jacob Anderson, Assad Zaman, and Eric Bogosian joined executive producers Mark Johnson and Hannah Moscovitch for a panel to discuss how Louis (Anderson) and Lestat’s (Sam Reid) latest chapter came to a close. They also looked back at some highlights from the show’s unique event, The Vampire Lestat: One Night Only Live, where Reid took the stage in character for a rock concert full of original songs that Daniel Hart composed for the show. Season 3 of IWTV saw the titular immortal set the record straight from Daniel’s (Bogosian) book by starting a band and going on tour as a rock and roll god, making music a key piece of his rise to fame and power and of how his past catches up with him. It’s ultimately music, too, from Lestat’s grand concert that sets the stage for the return of the Queen of the Damned before the curtain is drawn.
Heading into SDCC, the series was still waiting for a Season 4 renewal to adapt Rice’s next IWTV novel. The Vampire Lestat is designed sort of as a first part of a larger story, with the next set to finally give Sheila Atim‘s Akasha a proper spotlight. A look at the ruins of Montreal after Lestat finishes narrating his Failures teases that a lot has happened since the concert, and a lot could change in the show’s future. Now, fans will no longer have to wait for an answer as to what comes next, as she is here. During the panel, it was confirmed that Interview with the Vampire would indeed return for a fourth run to follow up on that cliffhanger, taking on the new name Queen of the Damned in accordance with Rice‘s book. Included with the announcement was a frightening new teaser of Akasha answering the call of the women of the world and beckoning them to rise up, declaring herself the answer to their woes.
‘Interview with the Vampire’ Is Going Much Bigger With Season 4
Queen of the Damned will see Moscovitch taking over showrunning duties from series creator Rolin Jones, a fitting arrangement considering she wrote for Akasha in The Vampire Lestat. She’s been a pivotal part of IWTV‘s success so far, having also served as a writer on the first two seasons of the Immortal Universe series. In an official statement, Chief Content Officer of AMC Global Media and President of AMC Studios Dan McDermott expressed his confidence in the new season and how Moscovitch will address a world in peril after a rocking third run. “In The Vampire Lestat, Mark, Rolin, Hannah and this extraordinary cast delivered an unforgettable season filled with propulsive storytelling that captivated the passionate and engaged fans of this franchise,” he wrote. “We can’t wait to continue the journey with Queen of the Damned, one of the most iconic stories in Anne Rice’s mythology, and watch our established and beloved characters confront Akasha with their world, and ours, very much hanging in the balance.”
After two acclaimed seasons following Louis’ point of view, The Vampire Lestat continued to rock critics’ worlds, earning a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Collider‘s Carly Lane gave it a 9/10 in her review, calling it “a decisively bold chapter that manages to be equal parts chaotic and poetic,” finding ways to feel like a natural continuation while also doing its own thing. With Season 4 now happening, the series is bound to undergo another shift for Queen of the Damned that Jones says is looking bigger and more supernatural than ever. In an interview with Lane after the finale, he teased new perspectives beyond the on-off vampire companions and a much wider scope, starting with the concert and the aftermath and molded around Akasha’s return.
“Look, the concert wasn’t there. There’s a bunch of stuff that happened off-screen this year that wasn’t there. People who know these books know The Queen of the Damned has chapters full of strict points of view, and that should be very clear. There were some things that were left out of Season 1 because there was a man on a microphone talking about his experience, and those tangential things that helped get you to that last image. But there are a bunch of things that were, for this year and going forward, about the laissez-faire of living here and now as vampires and having awoken something. The show’s about to get pretty big. In a show that is, generally speaking, dominated by male voices, there’s a new sheriff in town, and that will affect everything.”
There is no release date confirmed yet for Queen of the Damned, but for now, all episodes of The Vampire Lestat are streaming on AMC+.
via Collider