We knew The Vampire Lestate was coming. But I don’t think anyone tuning into yesterday’s San Diego Comic Con expected a four-minute teaser featuring Sam Reid in full Rockstat get-up, reciting the first page of Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat, or a fully-realized song already. But it happened, folks. In all its glitter, melodramatic, and campy glory.
Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire just finished a phenomenal Season 2. Covering the back half of the first book, this sophomore season saw Louis (Jacob Anderson) finish his story to Daniel (Eric Bogosian) while uncovering the truth of what really went down in Paris. The season is the best television you’ll see this year.
It’s psychological horror storytelling at its finest, all centered around Anderson’s incredible performance as Louis and Delainey Hayles’ fierce and moving portrayal of Claudia. Assad Zaman brings the vampire Armand fully to life in Season 2 after play-acting as Rashid in Season 1. If you want an example of just how fantastic Anderson and Zaman are in this season, look no further than Episode 5’s fight scene.
Season 3 was announced ahead of the Season 2 finale, with a logline that reads: “Resentful of the perfunctory portrayal in the trashy best-seller 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. 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.”
That’s pretty much the set-up in the Season 3 teaser, which likely is more of a concept trailer than anything. In it, Daniel talks behind a camera about how they are waiting for Lestat to show up for an interview. Mentions of murder and lawsuits are thrown around like it’s a typical Saturday. Eventually, Lestat enters in a black crop top and lime green jacket that ends in fringes at the sleeves. He’s never looked better (and worse). Finally, Lestat’s in the present day. As Daniel starts to ask him how he feels about the book, Lestat takes over, interrupting Daniel’s questions and controlling the camera to make people pay attention. And then the music starts.
There are so many great things to take away from this teaser. First, using a documentary as a framing device. A documentary-style set-up feels like a perfect fit for Lestat, who likes to put on a performance. We saw it in Season 2 during the trial and we’ve seen it in his interactions with Louis and Claudia. The interview taking place as a documentary creates an allusive atmosphere of the truth and performativity. Documentaries purport to tell the truth, but their narratives are still being decided on by people making decisions on what to show and what not to show.
The sequence in the teaser in which Lestat is crying, laughing, sobbing, and smiling seems like a genuine show of shame. But it’s also performative, his attempt at gaining mass sympathy from the audience (much like he does in the trial episode). Though the show seems to be doing away with the “memory is the monster” theme from the first two seasons, there’s a good chance that this framing will keep the unreliable narrator alive. Afterall, Lestat is the “father of lies,” and while it’s his turn to tell his side of the story, that doesn’t mean we should take any of it at face value. As Reid said during IGN’s interview at Comic-Con, there’s truth to Louis’ version of events.
It’s also about to get extremely meta. Bringing Lestat into the present-day music scene provides an interesting landscape for Rockstat to navigate. The play between in-universe fans of Daniel’s book and the real audience is already taking place. But there’s also “Excutive producer, Mark Johnson” introducing himself to Lestat in the teaser, who is the actual executive producer on Interview with the Vampire. A makeup artist stops by and introduces herself as Tami, a reference to Tami Lane, the show’s makeup artist.
While writing this, AMC released the full version of the song in the teaser, titled “Long Face.” The musical inspirations for Season 3 will include Rocky Horror and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, showrunner Rolin Jones listed off plenty of musical inspirations during yesterday’s panel, including David Bowie, Chappel Roan, Florence Welch, Fiona Apple, Freddie Mercury, and Raleigh Ritchie, with Daniel Hart composing. Raleigh Ritchie is an interesting inclusion here, as that is the stage name for Jacob Anderson. Another meta moment for Season 3. If we don’t get Louis and Lestat singing a battling duet, then what is the entire point of all of this?
Sam Reid fully embodies Rockstat in both the teaser and the song. Reid’s spin on particular words is incredibly satisfying. If there was any doubt about his take on Rockstat, there shouldn’t be any longer. He’s got the range. And the lyrics! My god, we’re about to get so many songs about Lestat’s pining for Louis, and it’s going to be just as unhinged as we’ve already seen. I can’t wait.
We got all of this from San Diego Comic-Con, but no release date as of yet. Filming for Season 3 has not yet begun.
Image courtesy of AMC
Katey is co-founder and tv editor for InBetweenDrafts. She hosts the “House of the Dragon After Show” and “Between TV” podcasts and can be read in various other places like Inverse and Screen Speck. She wishes desperately the binge model of tv watching would die, but still gets mad when she runs out of episodes of tv to watch.
