Summary
Interview with the Vampirehas been confirmed for a third season on AMC after two highly successful seasons spent adapting the original novel of the same name. As revealed in the trailer dropped at San Diego Comic-Con,Interview with the Vampireseason 3 adaptsThe Vampire Lestat, the second book in Anne Rice’sThe Vampire Chronicles.The original novel centers around Lestat awakening in the modern world and becoming a rock star, while revealing the titular vampire’s past from his own perspective.
This isn’t the first timeThe Vampire Lestathas been adapted. The 2002 filmQueen of the Damned,a follow-up to 1994’s adaptation ofInterview,combined elements from the second and third books in the series. The film features Aaliyah as vampire queen Akasha and Stuart Townsend taking over the role of Lestat.Aaliyah’s performance is the highlight ofQueen of the Damned, with the movie ultimately being panned by critics. WhileInterviewalready has a leg-up over this failed adaptation, there’s still plenty that the new season could learn when adapting the same material.
What Went Wrong With Queen Of The Damned In 2002
Some Things Stood Out
There were a number of things thatQueen of the Damneddid wrong that ultimately caused the film to fall short.Recasting Lestat de Lioncourt with Townsendproved a poor choice, as while the actor did an admirable job in the role with the material given,he didn’t live up to the charisma of Tom Cruise’s performance as the character from eight years before. Cruise had supposedly been approached to reprise the role, but ultimately turned it down.
The script was fairly weak, with some of the performances wooden and bland; something even the best actors struggle to make work. Worse, the film tried to do too much with too little room.
Queen of the Damnedhad a number of things going for it, with a soundtrack filled with music from some of the decade’s biggest names in nu metal and rock, but it boasted more than a few fatal flaws. The script was fairly weak, with some of the performances wooden and bland; something even the best actors struggle to make work. Worse, the film struggled to condense its story into a single feature. Adapting a novel into a movie is already a struggle, andtrying to fit the plot of two separate novels into a single film was destined to fail.
How Interview With The Vampire Season 3 Can Avoid Queen Of The Damned’s Problems
It’s Already Set Itself Up For Success
Interview with the Vampire’sthird season is already poised to easily avoid these pitfalls. Coming off ofInterview’swell-reviewed second season, it’s likely the writing will continue to be exceptional going into season 3. Sam Reid’s take on the character Lestat is so well-received that it’s difficult to imagine him being recast, and it’s already been confirmed he’ll be reprising the role. While the writing might surprise everyone by not matching the weight of the first two seasons, it seems unlikely, and the biggest potential pitfall is likely to be trying to do too much.
Even with modern prestige TV series having such small episode counts compared to even just a decade ago,Interviewhas far more room to work with and likely won’t try to work in the plot of other novels just yet. While season 2 dipped into some of the elements from other novels in the series, showing us more of Armand’s backstory, it did so sparingly and kept it relevant to the plot. With a teaser already released season 3looks to be an exciting adaptation, withLestat telling his story inInterview with the Vampirevia a music documentary,adding a fun twist.
Interview with the Vampire
Cast
Based on Anne Rice’s novel series that began in 1976, Interview with the Vampire is a gothic horror fantasy series that explores the life of Louis de Pointe du Lac through an interview with a journalist. Told through flashbacks of Louis' life during the interview, the series examines Louis' relationship with the vampire that turned him, Lestat de Lioncourt, and a teenage girl named Claudia, whom he turns. The series is the first of Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe media franchise.
