AMC’s Interview with the Vampire premiered in 2022 to rave reviews, followed by an equally loved second season in 2024. With two years between each season, we’re bound to forget a few things. So, before Season 3 hits streaming, let’s recap some key plot points.
Louis & Daniel’s Second Interview
Season 1 begins with journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) receiving a letter from Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) inviting him to his home in Dubai. He wants a redo of their 1973 interview in San Francisco, which we’ll hear about a lot, but the full story isn’t revealed until season 2’s fantastic episode 5.
Louis takes him back to 1910s New Orleans, when he was a young man in his 30s working as a brothel owner. He meets Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid), a French vampire he unknowingly enticed by threatening his religious brother, Paul (Steven G. Norfleet). The two men start spending time together, but Louis, a closeted gay man of Creole descent, pulls away.
In the early hours after their sister Grace’s (Kalyne Coleman) wedding, Paul takes his own life by walking off the roof. Their mother (Rae Dawn Chong) then takes her grief out on Louis, outright blaming him for Paul’s death. Without his family, he turns to his gal pal, Lily (Najah Bradley), but Lestat has already killed her.
When Louis goes to the church to confess, Lestat barges in, gruesomely kills two priests, and convinces Louis to be his companion. Of course, he tells him nothing about the risks and limitations of being a vampire. Louis struggles to eat humans and instead drains rats and animals like they’re Capri Suns.
Louis & Claudia Left New Orleans
After his murder and mutilation of Alderman Fenwick (John DiMaggio), the town of Storyville descends into unrest, with Black residents losing their homes, loved ones, and their own lives. Louis rescues a 14-year-old girl named Claudia (Bailey Bass) from a burning house. But instead of finding her a hospital, he takes her to Lestat and manipulates him into turning her.
Claudia changes their lives completely, but the good times end once she accidentally kills her crush, Charlie (Xavier Mills). She leaves her dads behind, in search of answers about their kind, and when she returns, she tries to take Louis with her to Europe. Lestat and Louis have a brutal fight that leads to Lestat dropping him from the sky. Oh yeah, Lestat can fly!
After a few years apart, Louis eventually takes him back, but their relationship and family dynamic are forever changed. Lestat continues his affair with Antoinette (Maura Grace Athari) and turns her into a vampire. His actual feelings for her are questionable, but she proves useful in spying on Claudia as she plans her and Louis’ escape, which centers on killing Lestat. Claudia proposes a big Mardi Gras massacre to end their time in New Orleans, and he’s unable to resist the pageantry and carnage of it all.
Claudia poisons a party guest and offers him to Lestat, who thinks he’s outsmarted her. After he starts retching, Louis holds him while slitting his throat. Antoinette and the other casualties are thrown into the incinerator, and Claudia and Louis head overseas. But Daniel, who is forever reading Louis, calls him out for not following through with discarding Lestat. By then, Louis had learned that burning bodies is the best method of disposal, so tossing his ex into a box and sending him to a dump where he can heal by eating rats is anything but final.
The Théâtre des Vampires
In the last moments of the season one finale, it’s revealed that an employee named Rashid is actually Armand (Assad Zaman), an over 500-year-old vampire and Louis’ companion for 77 years. Season 2 focuses on Louis and Claudia, now played by Delainey Hayles, making their way through post-WWII Europe. She searches for any sign of other vampires, but only finds some remains, feral zombie-like vampires, and a female vampire who takes herself out via fire. But in Paris, Armand invites them to the Théâtre des Vampires, where they meet the coven.
In episode 3, Armand tells Daniel about meeting Lestat, an actor at the time, who inspired the coven to get out of the shadows and live amongst humans. He also founded the Théâtre des Vampires, much to the shock of his former immortal companions.
After being hazed for a while, Claudia joins the coven, finally being embraced by other vampires whom she believes are loving and supportive. She also meets a lonely dressmaker, Madeleine Éparvier (Roxane Duran), and the two form a bond. Meanwhile, Louis and Armand’s relationship grows, and the coven resents Louis for his freedom outside of the theater.
The Trial & Fire
In season one, Lestat warned Claudia that the vampires in Paris were vicious, but neglected to tell her and Louis why and how they’re dangerous, so it’s not surprising that they went to see for themselves.
The coven puts on a show with Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine on trial for breaking the Great Laws, which they sell as a one-time-only event. Lestat reappears for the production, acting his part as the victim of traitors. When it comes time for the verdict, Claudia and Madeleine are sentenced to death and turn to ash under the sun. But Louis gets banishment; buried under small rocks in a coffin and stored in their cellar.
After Armand secretly frees him, a vengeful Louis sets the coven on fire, then goes after those who escaped, including new coven leader and orchestrator of the trial, Santiago (Ben Daniels).
Louis Broke Up with Armand (& Armand Turned Daniel)
When the interview is over, Daniel has more questions that ultimately lead to him showing Louis the trial’s script, which the Talamasca received from Théâtre des Vampires playwright Sam Barclay (Christopher Geary), another coven escapee.
Daniel reveals that Armand directed the play and had no intention of saving Louis, Claudia, or Madeleine. It was Lestat who telepathically forced the audience to banish Louis instead of outright kill him. After they fight, Louis tells Armand to leave and he thanks Daniel for uncovering the truth.
Following his crashout, Louis carelessly left Daniel in the house with Armand, who turned him into a vampire. The transformation happens off-screen, but I wonder if we’ll see it play out in a season 3 flashback.
Louis travels to New Orleans and reunites with Lestat, thanking him for the dark gift as they weep thinking of Claudia’s death. Louis ends the episode with a mass telepathic threat to all the angry vampires ready to kill him for exposing their secrets.
What to Expect in The Vampire Lestat
This season, the ever-theatrical Lestat is in his rockstar era, touring with his band, and Daniel Molloy brings a documentary crew to capture it all. Molloy’s book paints him in a bad light and he wants to set the record straight. In a first look clip, Lestat is talking to Louis when he finds out about the book. Last October, AMC released a teaser showing the two in divorce court.
AMC’s marketing team kinda dropped the ball promoting the first two seasons, which is why the series is so underrated. However, they’ve slightly improved this time around, posting teasers, trailers, clips, songs on Spotify, and the opening titles months ahead of the release.
As far as returning characters, the trailers/teasers confirm we’ll see Nicolas (Joseph Potter, Bruce (Damon Daunno), Raglan James (Justin Kirk), and even Real Rashid (Bally Gill). Claudia will also make an appearance, though probably as a ghost or in flashbacks. We also know that we’ll meet new characters, including Lestat’s mother, Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle), his maker, Magnus (Damien Atkins), and Akasha, the Queen of the Damned (Sheila Atim).
We’ve gotten glimpses into Lestat’s past: his time in a monastery, his abusive dad and brothers, his maker killed himself, his acting phase, and his companion before Louis, Nicolas. But we’re ready to dive into his backstory and witness all his various traumas.
The Vampire Lestat premieres June 7 on AMC+.
