One of the most famous vampire books of recent cultural history, Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire has received a new adaptation last year by American TV network AMC — producer of another bunch of shows full of undead, The Walking Dead and its numerous spin-offs that I lost track of1.

Interview with the Vampire was previously adapted as the 1994 movie with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst, which I enjoyed back in its day2. As this movie is almost 30 years old now, AMC seemed to believe it was time for something more modern, and IMHO they succeeded in their new TV show version of this material. The new Interview with the Vampire is an interesting and IMHO successful adaption largely also because instead of a 1:1 adaptation of the book, they have turned it into something more like a sequel to the original book, a retelling with a new twist. In addition to that, they made some notable changes to the source material.

The book takes place in 1976 with journalist Daniel Molloy interviewing the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac in San Francisco about his (after-)life as a vampire in New Orleans in 1791. Louis was an indigo plantation owner in the original book, mourning the death of his brother when he is approached and later sired by the vampire Lestat. Throughout the plot, they later turn a five-year-old girl, Claudia into a vampire, who becomes their adopted daughter.

However, the TV adaptation takes place in Dubai in 2022, in which Louis invites Daniel to his opulent Dubai penthouse to be re-interviewed. Daniel is now 40+ years older and suffering from Parkinsons, while Louis being a vampire, appears to be the same. While most of the story that is being re-told will be familiar to anyone who read the book(s) or watched the 1994 movie, there are quite a few notable changes that made watching this show a very interesting experience.

The most notable change is that the majority of the plot now takes place in 1910 and the decades afterwards, and Louis is now an affluent black man who owns a plantation and faces discrimination and racism being black and rather rich and successful during these times. I felt that this change to the source material was rather well done – contrary to many Hollywood productions that include diverse cast just for the sake of being diverse, even if it doesn’t really make sense3, here, it actually adds a lot of interesting plot points to the show, and adds a new twist to the story that will keep things interesting for fans of the original novels.

Additionally, this show takes the homoeroticism hinted at in the books and makes it overt, with Lestat romancing Louis and them becoming a couple (and thus, facing additional discrimination and superstition by the local population). They later sire and adopt Claudia, a teenage vampire, as their daughter/sister.

The show is a successful re-adaptation that addresses a lot of topics which are prevalent, such as racism, homophobia, equality and toxic relationships, with everything that Daniel is being told re-evaluated. Daniel sees Louis as an unreliable narrator, and continuously questions him and his story from 1976, but just as well his story from 2022. What is really the truth, we might never actually find out.

I greatly enjoyed the first season of this new adaption – so much, that I actually already watched it twice4. I am very excited for the second season of this adaption, and especially for future adaptations of the other novels. Personally, I have read Interview with the Vampire (1976), The Vampire Lestat (1985) and Queen of the Damned (1988), with the latter having been my favorite. I started The Tale of the Body Thief (1992), but stopped because it became too weirdly religious for me, but I hear the other 9 novels of The Vampire Chronicles are an improvement.

The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned have received a very bad adaptation in the past with the 2002 movie, which is generally regarded as a failure – not surprisingly, as it tries to cram the plot of two books containing a lot of depth into a normal length movie. With the 2022 TV adaption having been so promising, I am actually quite excited to see if they will also adapt The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned in a similar manner, because Sam Reid as Lestat is honestly the most perfect casting choice I have ever seen. He is absolutely brilliant in all of Lestat’s evil, twisted glory. But before we get there, I’m excited to see how Louis’ journey to the Old World will play out in Season 2 of Interview with the Vampire, especially now that the timeline of the show has been changed.