Summary
- Season 2 of Interview with the Vampire explores the theme of “memory is a monster,” as Louis and Claudia deal with the consequences of murdering Lestat.
- The show remains faithful to the spirit and plot of Anne Rice’s 1976 novel, expanding on ideas featured in the second half of the book.
- Fans can expect the relationship between Louis and Armand to evolve and change throughout the season.
Lestat is dead. The season one finale of Interview with the Vampire finds Louis de Pont du Lac (Jacob Anderson) and Claudia (Bailey Bass) carrying out their diabolical plan to murder Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) in hopes of escaping their possessive vampire master. And now that the SAG-AFTRA strike is merely a bitter memory, Anderson is dishing on what fans can expect in season two, which includes the theme of “memory is a monster.” Check out a pair of new images from season two below, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly:
Anderson said in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly:
“The theme of season 2 is this idea of memory is a monster, and how memory and guilt can follow you around. We meet Claudia and Louis in season 2. They’re dealing with the psychological and literal repercussions of what they did together. With Louis, you definitely get a sense there was some hesitance on his part — he didn’t really go through with it, he pulled back from the decision at the last minute, because he is very in love with this fellow monster. That creates tension between the two of them, Louis and Claudia, that they weren’t exactly on the same page, so for those two to be together now in an unfamiliar territory creates a lot of drama.”
Anderson continued:
“There are things that I can’t talk about in this season that were really challenging and really shocking to me, and I’ve learned a lot of things about Louis and myself. Another big theme in the show is that of endurance and resilience, and because of what Louis is experiencing this season, I’ve definitely learned that my own mind is more resilient than I thought it was. It’s more robust. I can withstand more madness than I thought I could. It’s been really fulfilling and challenging and fun.”
Related: How AMC’s Interview with the Vampire TV Series Compares to the Movie
Interview with the Vampire Season 2
AMC | AMC+
Jacob Anderson promises fans of author Anne Rice’s 1976 novel that AMC’s Interview with the Vampire series is faithful to the second half of the book in the show’s sophomore season. While the TV show/streaming series deviates from the novelization in terms of the time period and how some of the characters are presented on-screen, Anderson assures the fandom of faithful readers that the episodic adaptation is “faithful to the spirit and actually the literal plot.” Anderson also told EW in the same interview:
I love the first book, but the second half is not quite as dense as the first half, so the writers this season have definitely expanded on ideas that are hinted at or suggested in the second part of the book.
As Louis and Claudia — she is now portrayed by Delainey Hayles in season two — make their way to Paris in the past, an older and wiser Louis continues to tell his tale to the one-time Boy, Daniel Malloy (Eric Bogosian) from his and Armand’s (Assad Zaman) palatial stronghold, aka their coffin, in the city of Dubai. Anderson said:
“The continuation of Dubai really opens everything up this season. Dubai is really explosive. Dubai really took me by surprise this season. There’s a lot going on there, and there are things that are a part of the wider series of books, but also things that are creations of the writers that makes complete sense to the characters that we know and love. It’s a heavy season for those guys in the present. But we are also going to the theater, we’re in Paris, we’re in Eastern Europe, so it will be very familiar in all the same ways as the first season was, but also there will be surprises.”
The final scene of season one finds Armand revealing his true identity to Malloy as the vampire hovers in the air and flies to retrieve a file from high above for Daniel to peruse. Jacobson also discussed the development of Louis and Armand’s love story in season two with EW:
“Their relationship is really interesting, and it’s one of the things that I’m most excited about people seeing this season. It really evolves and changes as they get to know each other. They definitely hit it off — they have a real chemistry when they first meet. Armand would appear to be very different to Lestat. And I think he’s more than a rebound, let’s put it that way. But there’s definitely residual trust issues and perhaps dynamics repeated, but not necessarily in the way that you think. They just click, and they’re not even really sure why they’re drawn to each other, but it’s an ever-shifting relationship as the season goes on.”
Anderson continued:
“It is something that Assad and I thought about before we started shooting, but then realized really quickly that the only way that this would work would be to not make any comparisons. It is part of the text that there are comparisons made and definitely their relationship is a response to Louis and Lestat’s relationship, but Assad and I have a completely different relationship to mine and Sam’s relationship. And obviously, it’s acting, but we made a decision very early on to not try and replicate anything from that first [season]. Tangibly, it has to feel like a different thing. Otherwise, you wouldn’t understand why Louis would pick that relationship again.”
At the time of this writing, Interview with the Vampire is scheduled to drop on AMC and AMC+ sometime in 2024. Until then, fans can whet their appetites and watch the latest Interview with the Vampire footage right now.
You can view the original article HERE.
