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The Book Inspirations Behind INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE’S Armand/Daniel Vampiric Pairing

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The finale of Interview with the Vampire season two had quite the twist, as a flash forward showed the audience that the Vampire Armand (Assad Zaman) had turned the reporter Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) into a vampire, some time before or after published his interviews with Louis and Armand as a book. We don’t know exactly how and when this happened. It seems to be an act committed more out of spite towards Daniel than love. However, Armand making Daniel a vampire does have its origins in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series of novels.

AMC

In the novels, Daniel Molloy doesn’t even have a proper name until the third novel in Rice’s series, The Queen of the Damned. In the 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire, the young reporter was simply referred to as “the Boy.” At the end of that first novel, he ran off, with Louis’ tapes in tow, hoping to find Lestat. In book two, The Vampire Lestat, we find out that the boy had the recordings transcribed and published as the book Interview with the Vampire. A recently reemerged Lestat discovered that his name and much of his life was put on public display for mortals, passed off as fiction. Yet we never learned what became of the young reporter until Rice’s third novel.

“The Story of Daniel, the Devil’s Minion, or the Boy from Interview with the Vampire“ from Queen of the Damned

In 1988’s Queen of the Damned, we learned the anonymous boy went searching for Lestat after his fateful interview with Louis in San Francisco in 1973. We also now had a proper name for him—Daniel Molloy. Lestat was slumbering at the time of Daniel’s search, and he didn’t find the undead French aristocrat. Instead, the Vampire Armand finds Daniel while he searches for Lestat, during a time when Armand made New Orleans his home. No other vampires lived there, as Lestat had long ago gone to sleep. Armand had “cleaned out” the city of any younger vampires. No one else dared to call New Orleans home at this time, as it was Armand’s territory.

AMC

Scanning Daniel’s thoughts upon encountering him, Armand discovered this young mortal boy knew his name, and his true vampiric nature, and became fascinated. He began stalking him, and no matter what city or country Daniel ran to, Armand would find him. At first, he casually threatened to kill him if he ever published his book. Yet he continued to allow him to live for his own amusement. Then something unexpected happened. After years of cat and mouse, Armand came to actually love the mortal Daniel. Even so, he constantly refused to give him the Dark Gift, no matter how much he begged.

Daniel, Armand, and the Night Island

Many years into their relationship, Armand decided to become “incalculably wealthy.” Using his knowledge of where old ships with treasure lay at the bottom of the ocean, he recruited Daniel, who now saw himself as “the Devil’s Minion,” to help him procure wealth. All while he was asleep during the day. With this fortune, Armand, with forged documents Daniel helped him create, purchased an island off the coast of Florida. Armand turned it into an entertainment and shopping paradise that came alive only after dark called The Night Island.

At the Night Island, Armand and Daniel lived for years. Daniel had everything he wanted, the finest clothes, the newest cars, all except the one thing he wanted most—to become a vampire himself. However, when Daniel’s life was in danger, on one of the many instances when he would run away from Armand, the 500-year-old vampire gave him what he wanted at last, and turned him. As Armand feared, however, making Daniel a vampire would only serve to drive a bigger wedge between them.

Daniel and Armand in AMC’s Interview with the Vampire AMC

All we know from the AMC series is that sometime after Daniel reveals to Louis the truth about Armand, and how he planned to let his Paris coven execute him along with Claudia, he turns Daniel into a vampire out of spite. But when did this happen? We don’t know yet. Did the two of them engage in a relationship similar to the one they had in the books? There doesn’t seem enough time for that intense love/hate relationship to have happened offscreen. Unless there is one further wrinkle to this story they are waiting to spring on us.

We know from episode five of season two, that Armand encountered Daniel back in 1973, interrupting Louis almost killing Daniel. Not only encountered him, but very nearly killed him, and erased his memories of the event. Yet he clearly had a fascination with Daniel, and it’s possible the pair had a relationship decades ago. One that Armand then wiped from his mind. There’s a limited series announced as coming from AMC called The Night Island. Could this series, at least in part, involve Armand and Daniel together? There are lots of ways this relationship could go, and we’re eager to see how Interview with the Vampire tackles this fan-favorite relationship going forward.

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INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Season 3 Will Give Us Glam Rock Lestat

Fans of Anne Rice’s vampires are gleeful with anticipation with the official confirmation that Interview with the Vampire season three will showcase Lestat (Sam Reid) in full rock star mode. Since that confirmation, fans have wondered just what Lestat’s music will sound like in season three. Will it be 2000s-era Nu metal, like in the movie Queen of the Damned? Thankfully, that seems to not be the case. In a post-season two finale discussion with The Los Angeles Times, showrunner Rolin Jones dropped hints as to what musical stylings they are going for. And it’s a wee bit more glam. Here’s what he had to say:

Lestat becomes a rock star. Let’s start there. We’re going to do a lot with that and are excited about potentially working with Daniel Hart who’s done the music for the first two seasons. We’re going to try to beat Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Rocky Horror. We’re about to try to make a little pop masterpiece.

New Line Cinema/AMC/Twentieth Century Films

Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Rocky Horror are two musicals leaning heavily on glam rock, even though they came out decades apart. Yet both have a gender-bending quality, definitely rock, but leaning into humor and camp in their songs. That is perfect for Lestat, who is known as the “Brat Prince” by other vampires. The Nu metal sound of Jonathan Davis of Korn for Lestat’s band in 2002’s Queen of the Damned is very heavy and self-serious. Aggressive, but not seductive. Not how most readers imagined Lestat’s music would sound like in the books.

Warner Bros.

In Anne Rice’s second undead novel, 1985’s The Vampire Lestat, the titular vamp awakens from a decades-long slumber in New Orleans. Although many things awakened him, one final thing finally brought him out of the ground. This was the rock music of a local band who lived near the cemetery where he slept. This band, called Satan’s Night Out, enraptured Lestat. First, he revealed he was a vampire to these young mortals. Then, he agreed to fund their band with his considerable wealth, with himself as lead singer.

AMC

By forming a rock band, Lestat decided to outdo his fledgling vampire Louis’ revelations to the world about vampire existence in his confessions (now a mass market book called Interview with the Vampire) by one-upping his former paramour with his own revelations, via songs, music videos, and a nation-wide tour. This was in 1985, an era when someone could conceivably take over the world via MTV. His songs do more than enrage the vampire nation, they also awaken the very oldest vampires in existence. Hopefully, we’ll see all of that play out, glam rock style, in season three of Interview with the Vampire.

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HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Bust Brings Daemon Targaryen’s Dragon Caraxes to Life

In the Game of Thrones franchise, it’s hard to know who to root for sometimes. Even our heroes find themselves morally compromised people. But you know who are the only non-malicious characters in A Song of Ice and Fire? The actual dragons themselves. They just want to fly around, eat sheep, and they only do bad things when humans tell them to. As a way of honoring these very good babies, the folks at Diamond Select are releasing a new Legends in 3 Dimensions bust of Caraxes, Daemon Targaryen’s dragon from House of the Dragon. You can check out images of this incredibly detailed bust down below in our gallery:

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Here’s the official description for the House of the Dragon Caraxes bust from the folks at Diamond Select:

Dracarys! Your friends will be breathing fire with envy when you show them your bust of Caraxes, the mount of dragonrider Daemon Targaryen! Measuring approximately 12 inches tall, this bust is insanely detailed, and rests atop a dragon’s egg base. Limited to only 1000 pieces, this resin bust comes packaged with a numbered base and a numbered certificate of authenticity in a numbered full-color box. Designed by Joe Allard, sculpted by Sandro Luis Sampaio.

Diamond Select

In George R.R. Martin’s world, the Dragonkeepers considered Caraxes to be the fiercest of all the young dragons of the Dragonpit. They even gave him the fearsome nickname the “Blood Wyrm.” Caraxes isn’t the largest of the dragons in Westeros, as he’s about half the size of Vhagar, the oldest of the Targaryen dragons. None of that kept Caraxes from being one of the deadliest dragons in history, however. You can pre-order this incredible House of the Dragon bust for the price of $250.00 now. Diamond Select is expected to start shipping the Caraxes bust sometime in the first quarter of 2025.

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HELLBOY: THE CROOKED MAN Trailer Looks Weird (Not in a Good Way)

Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and its myriad spinoffs are up there as my favorite comics of all time. The mix of Gothic, cosmic, and monster horror with a helping of gallows humor works for me so, so much. Guillermo del Toro famously made a couple of Hellboy movies with Ron Perlman. While good in their own GDT way, neither of them (especially the second one) truly felt like a proper adaptation of the source material. The 2019 Neil Marshall Hellboy movie with David Harbour adapted the source material directly, but the movie itself was very, very bad. Now we get Hellboy: The Crooked Man and…well, just take a look. Then we’ll talk.

First some context. The Crooked Man was a three-issue arc from Mignola and artist Richard Corben from 2008. It detailed one of Hellboy’s earlier missions for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. In 1958 Appalachia, Hellboy encounters some witches and witch-adjacent people and eventually cross paths with the titular Crooked Man, a hanged war profiteer from the 18th Century who has returned from Hell to act as the region’s resident Devil. He’s pretty terrifying, especially as Corben illustrates him.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man looks to be a very faithful (and small) adaptation of that particular story. On its face this is a good thing. One of the major issues with the 2019 movie is that it adapted way, way, way too many stories, not least of which The Wild Hunt, the longest and most epic story in the Mignola canon. Focusing on a one-off adventure and maximizing the horror is a pretty good idea.

Ketchup Entertainment

However, just looking at it, you can see the very low budget. You may have noticed the movie comes our way from Ketchup Entertainment. KETCHUP ENTERTAINMENT. Brian Taylor (of Crank franchise fame) is directing, with himself, Mignola, and Mignola’s Baltimore collaborator Christopher Golden on screenplay duties. Jack Kesy (who very briefly played Black Tom Cassidy in Deadpool 2) portrays Hellboy and he just kind of looks unfinished. If Harbour was TOO made up, Kesy looks like a decent amateur cosplay attempt.

So who knows! It may be good. It certainly seems focused more on the actual horror. Which is the proper direction to go following the dark fantasy mishmash of the last movie. But I’m not convinced after this wack first look. I would love it if one day any live-action outing properly snags the tone of the comics. Whether Hellboy: The Crooked Man can do that will have to wait until it comes out later this year.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Criston Cole’s Stupid Haircut Is Another Reason to Hate Him

House of the Dragon‘s Criston Cole is not an all-time Westeros villain because he has no redeemable qualities. He wasn’t born a total monster like Joffrey Baratheon. Criston Cole is a worse monster because he chooses to be one. The Lord Commander and new Hand of the King could easily be a good, noble knight if didn’t love violating his oaths and responsibilities more than Tyrion loves brothels. And we saw just how true that is during season two’s third episode. His situational awareness saved the life of the arrogant Gwayne Hightower. Cole’s swift actions provided a brief—and truly unwelcome—reminder he’s actually good at some things. Fortunately the episode also gave us a new reason to detest him. It took away the one unquestioned positive thing even a hater like me would never deny someone as awful as Ser Criston Cole: his amazing hair.

Theo Whiteman/HBO

Ser Criston Cole might be a vile, evil, amoral, craven lickspittle who sullies his white Kingsguard cloak with every breath he draws, but at least he always did so while sporting amazing hair. His dark flowing locks belied the ugly darkness lurking in the empty space where his heart should be. But at least he had the thin shadow of decency to look good while being so bad.

We know he’s a disgusting pig, but his hair was that of a brave and heroic knight they write stories about, the kind Sansa grew up loving. Ser Criston Cole had the hair of a leader.

Gary Moyes/HBO

Now House of the Dragon has taken that away from him and given him a stupid little haircut of a child. It looks like he asked for boy’s regular…from a barber’s apprentice…on their first day…when the barber wasn’t even present…and the scissors were broken and he only had a dull knife.

Why did he feel he needed a haircut in the first place? Why cut glorious hair voluntarily? Did he think hair that good was somehow revealing his “modest beginnings?” Did he think it wasn’t appropriate for the Hand of the King or for war? Who cares why he got it cut?! He’s a big dummy who doesn’t think before he acts. He just sent Ser Arryk to his death on a scheme too silly for Mr. Bean. Criston Cole never needs a good reason to do something bad and this haircut is no different.

HBO

Normally Criston Cole doing something indefensible would anger his biggest haters (:raises both hands and both feet:). Instead this is the best development of the season and maybe the series so far.

Losing his luscious locks is the best thing he’s ever done. We no longer have to give it up to Ser Criston Cole for anything. We don’t have to acknowledge there’s a single thing about him worth liking because he cut that one thing off. We’re free to fully, without guilt or disgust, bask in pure hatred.

His beautiful hair is gone. Long Short live his dumb little haircut.

Not short because we want him to grow his hair back out, which with any other character we would. Short because we hope he never gets the chance. Hopefully his next haircut does not come via scissors held by a barber who lost their glassed and was drinking all day. Hopefully Criston Cole’s next hairstyle comes via a dragon’s flame.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist, great hair appreciator, and the world’s leading Criston Cole hater. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Reveals How Daenerys Got Her Dragon Eggs on GAME OF THRONES

House of the Dragon‘s “The Burning Mill” saw Rhaenyra Targaryen task her young niece/step-daughter with a vital mission. The Queen not only entrusted Rhaena to look after her three young sons, she gave the princess two baby dragons and four dragon eggs to protect. If everything comes to “ruin” for Rhaenyra’s side, Rhaena is their backup plan. That plan that will include hatching new dragons ultimately earmarked for Pentos. But that’s where another Targaryen princess will be gifted three dragon eggs during her wedding to Khal Drogo centuries later. So are House of the Dragon‘s dragon eggs the exact same ones Daenerys Targaryen will one day hatch on Game of Thrones? Yes, they are. The series has confirmed Rhaenyra gave Rhaena the very same eggs that appeared on Game of Thrones.

HBOHouse of the Dragon‘s Gives Daenerys Targaryen’s Dragon Eggs an Origin Story

Episode director Geeta Vasant Patel told Mashable the dragon eggs seen during House of the Dragon season two’s third episode are historically important. Three of those pristine eggs become fossilized by Game of Thrones‘ time period almost two hundred years later. These House of the Dragon eggs are the exact same dragon eggs gifted to Daenerys Targaryen at her first wedding. As we know, she will eventually walk into a fire with them, emerging with her fire-breathing “children,” she’ll name her dragons Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion.

“All of us who work on this show are big Game of Thrones fans,” Patel said. “So it was very exciting to shoot that scene.” Considering Daenerys will quite literally prove to be her family’s “hope for the future” as Rhaenyra Targaryen called her niece on House of the Dragon, it was a fitting send-off for those dragon eggs. They’ll eventually, one way or another, reach Pentos and fall into the hands of the Free City’s Magister Illyrio Mopatis. He’ll then give the priceless artifacts to curry favor with Daenerys and her brother Viserys.

MaxGame of Thrones Lore Suggests a Different History for Daenerys’ Dragon Eggs Than House of the Dragon

House of the Dragon‘s Patel needed to verify the dragon eggs’ connection between shows because it’s a change from established Game of Thrones lore. While never officially confirmed, George R.R. Martin’s in-world history Fire & Blood seems to all but establish those dragon eggs arrived in Essos many decades before the Dance of the Dragons.

The accepted tale is that the three eggs came from the she-dragon Dreamfyre. Her current rider is Queen Helaena, but before Helaena that dragon belonged to a totally different Targaryen princess, (frustratingly) also named Rhaena. That Princess was the child of King Aenys and one of King Jaehaerys’ many siblings. She’s also the Targaryen infamous for letting her lover, Elissa Farman, steal a clutch of dragon eggs.

Elissa desperately wanted to build her own boat and set sail in the Sunset Sea. Rhaena simply loved Elissa too much to let her go, so eventually Elissa took matters into her own hands. She did so by taking dragon eggs. She stole some and sailed to Braavos where she sold them to the Sealord for gold. That gave her the coin needed to build her very own ship, which she used to sail under another name, evading capture.

The theft of the dragon eggs wounded House Targaryen, the only remaining dragon lords in the world. The shame of the scandal was bad enough. Far worse, though, was the fear someone would hatch the eggs themselves. All efforts to get the eggs back failed, and over time, they are believed to have eventually ended up in Pentos.

HBOWhat About the Fourth House of the Dragon Dragon Egg?

Eventually, the three dragon eggs end up in a fire with Daenerys Targaryen. It’s a good thing they did, regardless of the specifics of how they got there. Without Daenerys’ dragons, the living might not have held off the Night King long enough to stop him. But we knew that already.

What we don’t yet know is what happens to the fourth dragon egg Rhaenyra entrusted to her niece. But for that, we guess we’ll have to wait for House of the Dragon to reveal its secrets.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Tomi Adeyemi on Ending Her Orïsha Trilogy with CHILDREN OF ANGUISH AND ANARCHY

Tomi Adeyemi has brought the gods back and, to be honest, she is a goddess herself. As a 23-year-old, the Nigerian-American author, speaker, and fashionista broke open the doors for Afro-fantasy books with her debut novel Children of Blood and Bone in 2018. The fantasy world, set in a reimagined Nigeria, features protagonist Zélie Adebola, a young diviner who strives to restore magic to her people after an oppressive monarchy took it away. Seven years later, Adeyemi has two #1 New York Times bestsellers, Children of Blood and Bone and the sequel Children of Virtue and Vengeance.

Now, with millions of copies sold worldwide and a movie in the works with The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood at the helm, her Legacy of Orïsha trilogy is ending with Children of Anguish and Anarchy, released June 25. As Adeyemi’s characters have grown and matured, so has she. At 30, she’s embracing and reveling in being a creator who can do whatever she wants—cue Beyoncé.

CAROLINE FISS/MICHELLE MAQUILLAGE/LOLA IDOWU/HENRY HOLT BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERSUnearthing Diverse Protagonists Through an Enlightening Moment

“I look at the world, and I just see the fabric of the world… I just see this as being a part of the fabric of the world. And so I’m grateful,” Adeyemi tells Nerdist. “I’m grateful to play a part with all the amazing creators and storytellers who have been fighting this fight, not just in our generation, but I even look at Gina Prince-Bythewood, who’s been creating these stories for us for 30 years. It’s an incredible opportunity, and I’m just excited to keep watching this story ripple throughout the world.”

Adeyemi didn’t always see herself within the fabric of the literary world. Although she was always a voracious reader, Adeyemi didn’t see herself on the page. This lack of representation initially influenced the way she described her characters. She routinely wrote what she wanted her life to be; however, her titular characters were often white or biracial Black girls. When she got to college, she began looking back at her writing and had an awakening: She had erased herself from her subconscious in the same way her Blackness was ignored in the books she read.

“We grew up with these amazing fantasy novels, these amazing characters, but the same way I can watch a Bollywood movie every day for three years and believe in love…fate…family…color…music…dance is the same way I can look at all these worlds and consume them and love them and say, oh wait, I don’t belong here,” Adeyemi said. “And even if I didn’t tell myself that consciously, I realized and internalized that subconsciously because what does it look like for a little girl to spend ten years writing herself out of her imagination?” 

This personal journey of self-discovery and realization is a thread that connects Adeyemi’s work to her readers, fostering a sense of empathy, understanding, and pride.

The Tangible Impact of Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone

Since the debut of her first novel, a wave of YA fantasy novels featuring Black protagonists, such as The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna, Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen, and Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams, have emerged. This surge in diverse representation is a testament to the transformative power of Adeyemi’s work, inspiring a new generation of writers and readers.

Now, with her characters Zélie and Amari—dark-skinned Black girls with kinky hair—as the newest faces of fantasy, Adeyemi sees a new future for the next generation of Black girls. She believes the popularity of her book series and the forthcoming movie will make it impossible for a young Black girl not to see herself on bookshelves, television screens, films, and even toys.

“I’m so excited because when I put out Children of Blood and Bone in 2018, there weren’t [many] covers like Zélie,” Adeyemi notes. “They were few and far between. Now, if you click on Children of Blood and Bone, the algorithm is going to show you dozens of fantasy novels with beautiful Black girls on the cover. And [it will be] similar with this [movie adaptation]. When I was writing Children of Blood and Bone, Black Panther hadn’t been released yet. So now, to be actively closing out this trilogy in book form, to be actively awakening this franchise and movie form, to be meeting with cast and production, and just to see all the collective genius…brought to life through this film…in two generations, I don’t think a young Tomi is going to have an opportunity not to see herself.”

Inserting Ifa and the Orïshas Into a Fantasy World

The representation Adeyemi has brought to the culture goes deeper than phenotype. Her series highlights the ancient African Traditional Religion of Ifa—the Yoruba tradition practiced across the Black Diaspora. 

Although raised by two Nigerian parents, Adeyemi didn’t learn about the Orïshas until she did a fellowship in Bahia, Brazil, after graduating from Harvard University with an English literature degree. She stumbled upon a shop in the market with the Orïshas splashed across plates and was in awe. She’d never seen or read about gods that looked like her. Thanks to her Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, she’s brought these revered Nigerian deities to the forefront of pop culture, instilling a sense of pride and admiration for Nigerian heritage and culture in her readers.

“The way the Yoruba tradition has spread across the diaspora, whether you call it Ifa, candomblé, santería… it’s human, and it’s spiritual, and it’s divine,” Adeyemi said. “And when I started this journey with this trilogy and saw the Orïshas for the first time, I was struck with, I guess, my own divinity because I had never even imagined myself in a divine light. So to be face to face with these ceramic plates and not even know what I was looking at, but to see African divinity and be like, whoa, we’re out here.”

Nerdist Interviewer Odochi Ibe and Tomi Adeyemi

She said that being able to help bring Ifa and the Orïshas out of the shadows while breaking the stigma and stereotypes around the divination system has been beautiful and glorious. The reception from fans continues to Adeyemi’s heart. Those who practice Ifa feel seen, and those who discovered the Orïshas through this series say this knowledge was life-changing.

Children of Blood and Bone Moves Toward Live-Action as Children of Anguish and Anarchy Hits Bookshelves

Now, the film is moving forward, with Adeyemi announcing that casting is underway. She cannot wait to see how people react to the film and says working on the film has been breathtaking. So many creative geniuses—who she won’t name—are onboard to bring her story to life.

“[There are] Academy Award-nominated people who have designed things that have taken over pop culture in front of the camera, behind the camera…bringing a hundred percent of their genius to 1% of this story,” she teases. “And every single time, just my mind doesn’t know what to do with that… to have a genius come in and be like, ‘Look at all the details that I’m using to build [this world].’ To see a fight coordinator who’s designed a style for Zélie that no one has ever seen before, that never existed, and show it to me…like, what the heck did I just see? This is cinema-changing, and it’s all us…it’s insane and gorgeous to have [people that look like us] at the helm.”

The excitement about the film and the latest installment isn’t confined to Adeyemi. On Children of Anguish and Anarchy‘s release date, she kicked off her highly anticipated book tour at Barnes & Noble-Union Square in NYC. As she entered the sold-out affair wearing a stunning leather burgundy ensemble designed by British Nigerian designer Tolu Coker, she received a standing ovation with fans chanting, “Tomi, Tomi!”

The emotions culminating at the end of this seven-year journey overwhelmed her as she tearfully thanked her fans and family in attendance for all of the support they’ve shown her. After trying—and failing—to keep her tears at bay, she allowed herself a beautiful moment of vulnerability.

“This isn’t even about the book; it’s about looking out into this room… you’ve been reading this and supporting me, and supporting this series makes you all you’re blinding to look at right now…thank you for being here,” she said tearfully. “This has been the journey of a lifetime and encapsulates so much of the first half of my life. It encapsulates the girl in her room watching Naruto and reading Harry Potter. The teenager who desperately used to come to Barnes & Noble… touching the books all dramatically…even walking around at Barnes & Noble is very emotional. To come into this room and see all your faces means so much to me.”

As the Legacy of Orïsha continues to be a global phenomenon, Adeyemi is breaking the glass ceiling in terms of what Black writers, young Nigerians and others across the diaspora can achieve. Yet, she says she’s not focused on comparisons to calling her the “Black J.K. Rowling” (Editor’s Note: Pretty sure no one wants to be like her in 2024.) or Octavia Butler—the mother of Afrofuturism. In her words, just call her Muva because she is only competing against herself.

“I think there are greats who have done incredible things,” Adeyemi states to wrap up our interview. “I’m still wowed by Octavia Butler; I got to write a foreword for Kindred for the new edition…and that’s been such an incredible honor. It is an incredible honor to be compared to a literary titan. Even if I’m [considered] a literary [icon], I still want to put on [my] boxing gloves and like go up against [my]self and get better and stronger and deeper and learn more about the human experience and then like take you to church.”

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WB and Legendary Sets Release Dates for Next Monsterverse and Villeneuve Movies

This past spring, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures launched not one but two movies. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two premiered March 1 and is currently the second highest grossing movie of 2024. Adam Wingard’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire hit theaters March 25 and currently occupies the number three slot for the year. So, yeah, makes sense they’d want to do it again. According to Deadline, the two studios have set release dates for the next Monsterverse movie and the next Villeneuve movie.

WB/Legendary

The Villeneuve movie in question officially has a working title of “Untitled Denis Villeneuve Event Film.” This may in fact be Dune: Messiah, the proposed third film in the Dune franchises, based on the second Frank Herbert book. But it also may be an unrelated Villeneuve movie. In either case, this movie is on the books for December 2026.

As for the next Monsterverse movie, we know it will be directed by Grant Sputore. Now we also know it has a release date of March 26, 2027. Effectively exactly three years after the release of GxK. So get ready for those!

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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How the Season 2 Finale of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Changes the Book’s Ending

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Interview with the Vampire‘s second season is officially over. The AMC series now heads into Anne Rice’s second vampire novel, The Vampire Lestat for season three’s contents. This season of Interview with the Vampire gives us a finale makes a big change to the narrative of the book. And it is a change that some longtime fans might find themselves shocked by. It’s a fairly big alteration to a pivotal moment in the novel that alters the relationships of Lestat (Sam Reid), Louis (Jacob Anderson), and Arman (Assad Zaman) as we head into future seasons.

AMCInterview with the Vampire the Novel’s Ending

In Rice’s original 1976 novel, vampires Claudia and Madeleine are executed by the Paris coven for the crime of killing Claudia and Louis’ maker, the Vampire Lestat. Or at least, for attempting to kill him. Louis is given a lighter sentence for the same crime, however. (Perhaps it is a worse sentence, depending on how you look at it.) Louis is imprisoned by the coven members inside a locked coffin. That coffin is placed within the walls of the catacombs under the Théâtre des Vampires. He’s meant to die excruciatingly slowly, perhaps over several years, all while going insane from his lack of blood sustenance.

Ballantine Books

However, in the climax of the novel (and the 1994 film), Paris coven leader Armand rescues him. He tells Louis he could not prevent the execution of Claudia because she’d broken too many laws. Yet he exerted his power over his coven enough to rescue his beloved Louis from eternal imprisonment. Louis then takes revenge on the entire Paris coven by setting fire to the Théâtre des Vampires. Later, he takes a scythe to vampire Santiago, the coven’s second in command, ending his undead rival for good.

Louis then leaves Paris with Armand, both now free of the machinations of the coven. The pair wander the world for decades. Louis eventually confronts Armand with the truth—he knows Armand allowed the Paris coven to murder Claudia. He denied the truth to himself for years, but now realized Armand orchestrated Claudia’s death and his rescue (and the subsequent revenge against the coven) as a way of securing Louis’ companionship.

Warner Bros.

The film tackles this in a slightly different manner. Louis (Brad Pitt) tells Armand (Antonio Banderas) that he knew he was behind it all immediately after the events took place. Louis then wanders the world alone, and we never discover what became of Armand afterward. Now, the Interview with the Vampire AMC series presents a third version of these events.

AMC’s Interview with the Vampire Season Finale Modifies the Original Ending of the BookAMC

In the series, Louis is freed from his coffin prison, when Armand feeds him his blood, giving him the strength to break free. We never see who the vampire rescuer is, but Louis insists that it was Armand. Louis remains too starved and out of it to really care. The rest of the events transpire much like the book, as Louis takes his bloody revenge against the entire Paris coven, burning the theater to the ground. He then leaves with Armand, who takes credit for rescuing Louis.

Louis knows full well that Armand betrayed him, along with Claudia (Delainey Hayles), and Madeleine (Roxane Duran). But he believes they forced Armand to cooperate, thanks to a coup within the Paris coven masterminded by Santiago (Ben Daniels). Rescuing Louis was Armand’s way of making amends for letting the coven abduct them and force them into a public court spectacle. The two flee Paris together, apparently staying a couple for decades.

AMC

But Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), via his Talamasca contacts, discovers the truth about what happened decades ago in Paris. Despite appearances, Armand was not an unwilling accomplice in what the coven did. He didn’t just write the kangaroo court/mock trial play. He absolutely directed it. He was perfectly willing to sacrifice Claudia, Madeleine, and Louis to death in order to save his own skin. His vampiric underlings were revolting against him and he needed to prove himself to them (again).

In fact, it was not Armand who saved Louis from death. It was his maker Lestat. Lestat used his telepathy to force the mortal audience to give Louis a different sentence than death. Louis always believed Armand did this. Once Louis took his revenge on the coven and slaughtered them all, Armand happily took credit for saving him. With the threat to his own life gone, he now had everything he wanted. But Louis’ true rescuer was none other than Lestat.

AMC

This revelation enrages Louis in the modern day, who beats Armand by throwing him around their Dubai home. He later goes to New Orleans, where he tells Lestat that he knows the truth now. This is all a pretty big change from the original narrative. We always knew Armand was willing to sacrifice Claudia to remove her as an obstacle to his being with Louis. But, in the series, we now know he was also willing to let his beloved Louis die to save his own life. Once the coven was no longer a threat, he took credit for Louis’ commuted death sentence. Louis introduced Armand as “the love of his life” in season one, but it is actually his maker, the Vampire Lestat.

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How the Season 2 Finale of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Sets Up Season 3

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The second season of Interview with the Vampire has ended, bringing a close to the events of the book of the same name that inspired it. But the show’s creators, Rolin Jones and Mark Johnson, have already said a third season tackles The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice’s second chapter of The Vampire Chronicles. This was confirmed in AMC’s official announcement for season three. Yet the season two finale actually hinted at more than just book two in the future. There are hints for elements from book three and beyond. Here are the biggest things in the season two finale that tease what the future may hold for Louis (Jacob Anderson), Lestat (Sam Reid) and the other eternally sexy undead.

The Vampire World ExposedAMC

One of the central conceits of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles is that each novel in the series is also a book in-universe. Daniel Molloy’s interview with the undead Louis is published as Interview with the Vampire, and most of the world at large consumes it as historical fiction. But those in the vampire world, and in the Talamasca Order? They know that it’s all true, and that Louis has exposed the world to their secrets, breaking their highest laws.

In book two, The Vampire Lestat, we learn that Louis is Public Enemy #1 in the undead world for giving the interview, and the end of season two suggests that scenario is already in play. Vampires all over the world are already threatening to tear him apart for his crimes. In The Vampire Lestat, the vampire community declares war on Louis and Lestat for revealing their secrets to the mortal masses. It looks like that fight is certainly coming in season three.

Interviewer Daniel Molloy Becomes a VampireAMC

One of the biggest changes to Rice’s overall story in season one concerns the reporter, Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian). In the novels, the young reporter published his interview with the vampire Louis in the ‘70s. He then enters into a long and twisted affair with the vampire Armand, which lasts for a decade. He becomes his human familiar, but Armand continuously denies giving him the Dark Gift, no matter how much Daniel begs for it. All of this occurs in book three, The Queen of the Damned.

Armand finally makes Daniel a vampire while he’s still a young man, when he thinks he’s near death, in the novel Queen of the Damned. With Daniel growing to old age in the series, many believed the Armand/Daniel relationship would never play out in the series. But in the season two finale, we flash forward some time, and learn that Armand (Assad Zaman) did indeed make Daniel into a vampire. The how and why remains a mystery, but it seems that we might see the twisted story of Daniel and Armand from Queen of the Damned play out in season three. Especially as Eric Bogosian is confirmed as returning as Daniel.

The Arrival of Akasha, the Queen of the DamnedWarner Bros.

One of the most important characters in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles finally gets a name-drop in the season two finale. When Louis goes to say his seemingly final goodbye to Lestat in 1940s Paris, after the execution of Claudia (Delainey Hayles) by the Paris coven, he and Armand threaten to kill him with the Fire Gift. (In other words, mentally set him on fire). He tells Armand that it won’t work, even fire won’t kill him, all because he has “the blood of Akasha” in his veins.

So who is the mysterious Akasha, you may ask? She is one half of a royal pair of vampires known as “Those Who Must Be Kept.” The other is King Enkil, her consort. The reason they must be kept is because as the first vampires, the bloodline of the entire race comes from them. If they die, the entire vampire race dies too. The official season three announcement mentions the inclusion of “Those Who Must Be Kept” in the upcoming continuation.

Akasha, in Rice’s vampire mythology, is the first vampire, over 6,000 years old. The mother of the vampire race, Akasha was an ancient Egyptian ruler, who became the source of all their power. Her husband Enkil actually was only the second vampire made, and so the power truly lies with Akasha. She first appears in book two, later playing a central role as the titular Queen of the Damned. The late Aaliyah played her in the 2002 movie of the same name. With season three adapting The Vampire Lestat, it means our first glimpse of the undead royal in the flesh. A queen who has sat frozen like a statue for millennia. Start your casting guesses now. Who will fill Aaliyah’s crown?

Armand’s Treachery ExposedAMC

In the season two finale, reporter Daniel Molloy finishes his interview with the vampires Louis and Armand. He reveals the bombshell information to Louis that evidence he uncovered suggests Armand didn’t save Louis’ life in the trial of the Théâtre des Vampires as he’s believed for decades. It was his maker Lestat that did. Lestat telepathically influences the “jury” to give Louis a sentence of banishment instead of death. He later secretly helped Louis escape his torturous imprisonment in the walled-up coffin.

Louis becomes enraged at this revelation, that Armand not only fully orchestrated Claudia’s death, but also his own, all in order to save his own skin from his own coven. Only when he was out of danger from the coven did he take credit for Lestat’s actions. In the novel, Louis realizes that Armand was ultimately responsible for Claudia’s death decades later. Instead of making a fuss, he quietly leaves him. In the series, however, this revelation comes in the modern day, fracturing their relationship. In the books, Armand then moves on to seduce the interviewer, Daniel Molloy, and establishes a billion-dollar vampire lair called the Night Island. With Armand’s duplicitous nature revealed, we may see these aspects of the story play out now.

Lestat the Rock StarWarner Bros.

Louis sees Lestat (Sam Reid) again, for the first time in decades, at the end of season two. He encounters Lestat singing to himself and playing music in a rundown old shack in New Orleans. This occurs right as a hurricane is about to hit. He quips to Louis about “practicing to go on tour.” Now, that may seem like a joke, but in The Vampire Lestat, the 18th-century bloodsucker becomes a bonafide rock star, an internationally famous performer with stadium tours and music videos, all depicting vampiric history. And in the official season three announcement, they confirm that Lestat is putting together a band to go on tour. Even the announcement image features what look like stage lights.

No auto-tuning. More monsters. All feels amplified.#InterviewWithTheVampire will return to AMC and AMC+ for a third season. pic.twitter.com/C0tupUIcTx

— Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire (@Immortal_AMC) June 26, 2024

When his progeny Louis tells his story and has it published, Lestat feels the need to one-up him. Not only does he tell his (far more expansive) backstory, he also tells his story on stage and MTV. This was the ‘80s after all. Since the series takes place in the modern day, the notion of a vampire rock star seems very dated. It already seemed dated in the 2002 movie Queen of the Damned. But who knows? Maybe this series can make that aspect work. We already know Sam Reid can sing. It would be a shame not to see him rock out in some capacity. We’re very curious to see what the future holds for this bold TV adaptation of Anne Rice’s vampiric universe.

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