Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 310

THE BOYS Gets a Season 5 Renewal, Promises Crazy Sh*t

Give me a big “Oi!” The Boys is officially coming back for season five. The show made the glorious announcement via its social media pages a little over a month before the premiere date of its fourth season. The Boys is undoubtedly one of Prime Video’s most popular shows (for a great reason) so it is not a shocking announcement at all. In true Boys fashion, the announcement clip includes Kimiko using a knife to carve the words “season 5” into wood. 

You’re gonna wanna carve out time to watch this, luvs pic.twitter.com/8huvd3DOCK

— THE BOYS (@TheBoysTV) May 14, 2024

Showrunner Eric Kripke previously said that five seasons is a good stopping point for The Boys. So this could possibly be the final round for this bloody supe series. Of course, this won’t be the end of the universe. There’s still a lot of story possibilities for Gen V as well as other opportunities to do all sorts of spinoffs. Imagine a Homelander prequel or perhaps Kimiko and Frenchie setting off for their own adventures. Either way, another season means this franchise will likely get a chance to complete its story. In today’s streaming world, that’s a blessing for the fandom. 

Prime Video

Here’s what Kripke had to say about The Boys coming back for a fifth season:

The Boys is an unabashed and bold series that continues captivating our customers all over the world by piercing the cultural fabric season after season,” said Vernon Sanders, head of television, Amazon MGM Studios. “We are proud of this series that has grown into a global franchise, and we are thrilled that Eric Kripke and the creative team have more engaging stories to tell for all the loyal fans.

Recently, Kripke also gave an update on season five of The Boys, noting there was some craziness in store. He revealed, “we’re about a month into the writers room right now, so we have some pretty cool notions. It’s a very raw lava-esque deal right now. It hasn’t hardened into anything, but I’m excited. I think there’s some crazy sh-t’s been talked about, that’s for sure.”

In the meantime, we are ready for The Boys season four to drop on June 13.

Originally published on May 14, 2024.

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David Lynch Teases *Something* Will Drop June 5

David Lynch is one of the best filmmakers ever in the history of films and making things. He’s also, as evidenced by his entire body of work, a very weird guy. He used to do Los Angeles weather reports on his YouTube channel every day for years. These were usually like a minute long and consisted of him just saying what the weather was like at his house at that moment. We love it. And true to form, he’s also a delightful weirdo when it comes to cryptic promotion.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Lynch posted to his Twitter (never X) account that *something* would drop on the Fifth of June for us to “see and hear.”

pic.twitter.com/7wH9m1ADi4

— David Lynch (@DAVID_LYNCH) May 27, 2024

Now, naturally the most optimistic among us will hope it’s a trailer for a new season of Twin Peaks or a new movie. Or, hell, it could be just one of those things, dropping outright. But Lynch also loves to add portent to very not exciting things. He once announced in one of his weather reports that he’d have a special announcement in a few days. It ended up being, initially, that he was going to stop doing the weather reports, but people were so excited about what his announcement could be that he decided to keep doing the weather reports…

DAVID LYNCH THEATER

So what we’re saying is David Lynch is going to David Lynch. It might be a new music video, it might be just the return of the weather reports. We truly don’t know. Watch the skies, I guess, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.

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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A Black and White/Chrome Version of FURIOSA Is Coming

Mad Max: Fury Road introduced us to Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa in 2015. We haven’t stopped thinking about the inimitable character since. She blazed across the dusty Wasteland and into our souls. Fury Road writer and director George Miller hasn’t let go of her either. In 2019, he expressed interest in making two more Mad Max movies—one of them being a prequel story about Furiosa. Filming for that tale began in 2022. And now, finally, we have our first trailer and images for the film starring Anya Taylor-Joy as a young Furiosa. And we’ve even learned where in the franchise timeline the movie takes place and more about the movie’s cast, including the reasoning for the Furiosa recast. It was all worth the wait because Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga looks amazing.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Will Get a Black and White (Chrome) Version Like Mad Max: Fury Road

Speaking to the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Miller confirmed that a black-and-white or black-and-chrome version of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was on the way. Miller noted, “We’ve done it already. It’s the last thing I did on the film, and I call it tinted black-and-chrome. It’s really interesting, I’m still trying to demystify why the black-and-white for me, has something more elemental to it. It’s not because they look like old black-and-white movies, it’s something else.” Perhaps, Miller opines, it has to do with the drama of the outcomes.

How Does Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Fit Into Mad Max‘s World?Warner Bros.

Technically, we know Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga takes place 45 years after the Collapse. But when we look closer at the semantics of all the Mad Max movies and comic books, it doesn’t perfectly fit. But it turns out that’s not really a problem.

Via Polygon, we saw director George Miller’s comments about the original Mad Max: Fury Road movie. He noted:

All the films have no strict chronology. It’s probably after Thunderdome, but it’s an episode in the life of Max and this world. It’s basically an episode, and it’s us revisiting that world. I never wrote the story, any of the stories, with a chronological connection.

And we’re willing to imagine that extends to Furiosa, too. Emotional logic, live it, love it.

Watch 6 Minutes of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

You can now check out six full minutes from Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. If that doesn’t get you revved up for the film, we don’t know what will!

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Trailer and Synopsis

The trailer teases Furiosa’s origins and Taylor-Joy showing, even in a couple minutes, how much she is embracing the powerful role. She has a large shaved head to fill, but by all appearances, she’s doing just fine. Set 45 years after the Collapse, Furiosa must find her way home. And we know the world, so we know it won’t be easy. Knowing how her story continues makes watching her challenging odyssey somewhat easier. Only somewhat. And Chris Hemsworth as Warlord Dementus? We’re already sold.

Click To View Gallery Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Warner Bros.

Furiosa: A Mad Max’s Saga official synopsis is as follows:

As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Casting Updates

We recently learned that Immortan Joe will now be played by Lachy Hulme. Hulme replaces Immortan Joe’s original actor from Mad Max: Fury Road, Hugh Keays-Byrne, who passed away in 2020. Hulme will also play Rizzdale Pell, a gang member who follows Hemsworth’s Dementus in the movie.

Warner Bros.More About Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: Timeline, Recast, and Other Intel

Director George Miller additionally clarified where Furiosa fits on the Mad Max franchise timeline. He shared, “This story happens 15 years directly before Mad Max: Fury Road, and it runs straight into it, and Max is lurking around somewhere in this story, but it’s really the story of Furiosa and how she got to be… A lot of the film will be familiar, and a lot of it’s new, which we haven’t seen before.”

Additionally, Miller has revealed why he chose to recast the role of Furiosa in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Of course, Charlize Theron originally played the role in Mad Max: Fury Road. However, instead of using digital de-aging technology, Miller opted for a recast of the Furiosa role, bringing Anya Taylor-Joy into the prequel movie.

Warner Bros.

Miller shared the reasoning behind the recast with Empire Magazine, which we saw via IGN. He notes, “It definitely would have been Charlize [had Furiosa been filmed before Fury Road]… I began thinking, ‘Oh, maybe we could do de-aging.’ Then I watched really masterful filmmakers like Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese, doing Gemini Man and The Irishman, and I saw that it hadn’t been licked. All you’d be watching is, ‘Look how well the technology works?’ It would not have been persuasive.” And that’s really fair enough.

With all this in mind, get us back to the Wasteland now, please and thank you. Miller wrote the script with Nico Lathouris and is back in the director’s role.

When Is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga‘s Release Date?

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga arrived in theaters on May 24, 2024.

Originally published on November 30, 2023.

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IN A VIOLENT NATURE Bucks Slasher Norms for a Slice-of-Life Look Into a Killer’s Day

Horror comes in an array of subgenre flavors to satisfy the tastes of different audiences. Some viewers eschew copious amounts of blood and brutality, instead opting for lighter fare that infuses comedy into its narrative. Others seek a horror film that leans more into building a tense atmosphere that toys with the protagonist’s—and, by extension, the viewer’s—psychological stability. And some just want to see some good old fashion slicing and dicing in the fashion of classic slasher flicks.

In all of these cases, the vantage point almost exclusively comes from a killer’s target(s) versus the harbinger(s) of death. But, what if we got a story with a slice-of-deadly-life POV from a hulking mass in the vein of Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers? How does that shift the experience? Is it one that works better in concept versus execution? Chris Nash’s arthouse horror flick In a Violent Nature takes this brave swing with mixed results. 

The film’s main character and silent antagonist, Johnny, arises from under the brush of an absolutely gorgeous yet haunting Ontario woods after a couple of teens swipe an item that belongs to him. He gets up and goes on a mission to kill anyone who crosses his path, whether they have this item or not. He finds a strange old fireman’s mask and a few solid weapons, including an ax. (Love your look, Johnny.) That’s the overall gist of the film.

His awakening begins the first of several sequences of us walking a few steps behind him as he trudges through the woods in search of blood. It certainly gives third-person video game vibes. This is a recurring instance in the film and, except for the first time, it is not particularly thrilling. Those walks in the woods are brilliantly shot but they always go on for a touch too long. At a lean 94 minutes, In a Violent Nature still feels like it can shave off about half an hour or, better yet, just be a short film.

If you like a preponderance of exposition and a strong backstory, you won’t find it here. Johnny’s main targets are a roster of teens who gather together in the woods for a weekend of fun. Thanks to one guy’s love of spooky campfire tales, we learn the legend of Johnny in a brief plot dump. (Johnny hilariously lurks quietly behind them in the dark woods, even staying in place to join their selfie.) All of the characters in the story are forgettable, save for the person who takes the sole survivor throne. Much of their final moments buck the normal battle royale style of standard slasher affairs while maintaining the actual tension that fans crave. Their frazzled escape makes you scan every corner of the frame for danger. (Unfortunately, this fizzles into an underwhelming ending.)

IFC Films

The lack of character development is probably on purpose, as it is not the victims’ stories. This eliminates the typical emotional sting of seeing someone you’ve built some degree of connection with getting obliterated. So, instead of jump scares, standard slasher tension, and the anticipatory dread of when the killer will emerge, there’s the uncomfortable experience of communing with evil and knowing that each kill will offer sheer brutality. It has a strange way of drawing the viewer in but also not allowing them past an arm’s length. There are no human drama or true interpersonal relationships to grasp.

This stripping of the slasher elements could prove to be alienating for viewers. It is all a bit disconcerting at times, creating a disconnection makes it hard to stay engaged. As someone who experienced this film on my flat screen TV at home alone versus a film festival or general movie screening, I had to run a couple of scenes back thanks to wandering thoughts. So many elements are so quiet (almost hypnotic) that you get lost in the forest of your own mind. The spurts of action are often too sparse to reel you back in.

Now, if you’re all about the kills, you’ll get some thrills. In a Violent Nature doesn’t shy away from this element. Johnny hacks up and disfigures bodies in a couple of ways that I, a longtime horror aficionado, have never seen before. The film uses its modest budget effectively to create gratuitously violent murders, one of which will stick with you for a while. In nearly every moment, murderous or not, the sound design and cinematography reign supreme. Johnny’s sluggish steps, nature’s ambient noises, muffled voices/screams, and more replace a film score to create an unsettlingly grounded environment.

IFC Films

In a Violent Nature boasts an understated and artistic aura but doesn’t shy away from the inherent, well, violence of the wild and, by extension, Johnny’s killing machine persona. Cotton candy sunsets and rotting animal flesh, lush green foliage and decaying trees, peaceful waters and pools of blood are all a part of the experience, the cycle of life, death, and whatever stage Johnny is in.  Who knew that horror could have a soothing element?

In a Violent Nature takes some strong creative swings and performs an experiment with slasher horror. As a tighter film with a steadier pace, I could see this working. But, the sluggish crawls to get to the crux of the story (like, you know why we are here!), lack of foundational lore, and zero characters that etch a notch in your memory left me feeling cold. In a Violent Nature is a flick that avid horror fans will be exploring and discussing. So it’s your choice if you’ll allow Johnny to lead your deep into the abyss of the woods.

In a Violent Nature ⭐ (2.5 of 5)

In a Violent Nature hits theaters on May 31.

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Here’s Why the Fifteenth Doctor Was Barely in DOCTOR WHO’s ’73 Yards’

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Doctor Who’s latest episode, “73 Yards,” is probably a bit confusing if you’re a new fan. The wild timeline shenanigans that aren’t supposed to make a ton of sense aside, a lot of people are probably wondering why the Fifteenth Doctor was barely in the latest Who adventure. The answer is rather simple: it is what we call a “Doctor-lite” episode. Doctor Who occasionally does episodes that either focus heavily on the companion (Doctor-lite) or on the Doctor (companion-lite). There’s a couple of reasons why the show would put the Doctor or a companion on the temporary backburner. 

BBC Studios/Bad Wolf Studios/Disney+Doctor Who Has Doctor-Lite Episodes for Production Reasons

The main one is, of course, for production purposes. In the show’s classic era (1963-1989), many stories were told in a serial format that could take 4+ episodes to complete. That’s a lot of shooting for actors and, well, they need time off. So, Doctor Who did episodes that either didn’t have the Doctor or companion in them at all or, if they were there, it was for very short amounts of time. For example, part three and four of the serial “The Keys of Marinus” did not have the First Doctor in them because William Hartnell was on vacation. 

A Doctor-lite Episode Can Help Develop (or Complete) a Companion’s Arc

Sometimes, there’s a storytelling/character development purpose. In the modern era (2005 and onwards), there are episodes like “Turn Left,” which focused on Donna Noble instead of the Tenth Doctor. This episode set up a major plot point that began to close out Donna Noble’s ongoing arc, so this focus was necessary.

BBC Studios/Bad Wolf Studios/Disney+

This is similar to “73 Yards,” which gives us a chance to get to know Ruby and how she can figure out and handle a crisis without the Doctor’s help. Now, we truly know that she is a capable companion. In return, “Midnight” takes Donna Noble out of the game and gives the Doctor a roster of people on a train to work with in a crisis.

One extremely popular standalone episode, “Blink,” is actually both Doctor and companion-lite and focuses on a new character entirely. We barely see the Tenth Doctor and his companion Martha Jones in the episode at all. It is actually based on a short story that Steven Moffat wrote about a character named Sally Sparrow in the Doctor Who universe. And, from a production standpoint, actors David Tennant and Freema Agyeman were able to simultaneously film another episode. 

Why Wasn’t Ncuti Gatwa in Doctor Who‘s Latest Episode Much?

A production overlap (or a vacation) could have affected Ncuti Gatwa’s availability for this episode. Or, as previously stated, it could have been an intentional way to get the audience bonded with Ruby Sunday. She did spend much of “Boom” nearly dying, so that was sort of companion-lite and allowed us to see Fifteen shine on his own. Either way, there’s no need to fear. This TARDIS team will have plenty of time to go on more adventures together.  

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INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Season 2 Delves Into Lestat’s Book-Accurate Backstory

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The first two seasons of Interview with the Vampire have, up until now, largely stuck to the events from Anne Rice’s original 1976 novel. But in season two’s third episode, “No Pain,” we go beyond book one at last. Viewers witness a slice of events first described in Rice’s second vampire novel, The Vampire Lestat. These events pertain to Lestat (Sam Reid) and his connection to Armand (Assad Zaman). What we saw on screen was all largely faithful to Lestat’s canonical backstory.

Lestat’s Backstory Finally ExploredAlfred A. Knopf/Ballantine Books

In the second novel in Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series, The Vampire Lestat, we finally have a proper telling of Lestat’s origins. He deliberately kept this information from his progeny, Louis and Claudia, in the first novel. In The Vampire Lestat, we learn that Lestat was the young son of a nobleman in 18th-century France. One who had long ago lost his fortune. He runs away with his best friend Nicolas to Paris, where he becomes an actor. A powerful vampire called Magnus becomes enamored with Lestat’s talent on stage and flowing blonde hair. He then makes him a vampire against his will. He also leaves him his fortune, after throwing himself into the fire. Lestat uses that money to buy the theater.

The History of Lestat and Armand Revealed AMC Networks

Eventually, another more ancient vampire starts stalking Lestat. This is Armand, a 300-year-old vampire who leads a coven called the Children of Satan. These vampires dress in filthy rags and live in the catacombs beneath Paris. They believe it is God’s will they serve Satan, and eternally suffer. Thus, Lestat is an outcast for living richly and among mortal humans. Armand kidnaps Lestat’s human companion, Nicolas, as a way to lure him to Cimetière des Innocents. This is a medieval cemetery in Paris where he and his coven reside. Once Lestat enters the coven’s lair, they realize the rules about haunting graveyards and running from crucifixes are just myths, stories perpetuated by Armand to control them all.

AMC Networks

Armand then tries to lure Lestat as his companion, feeling he owes him for breaking his coven of their traditions. Although Lestat finds himself intrigued by Armand, he ultimately rejects him. He chooses to leave France to search for older, more powerful immortals. However, Lestat leaves the theater he owns to Armand and his coven, instructing them to use it as their new lair. It was Lestat’s idea they pose as humans pretending to be vampires. That was the untold origin of the Theater of the Vampires from Rice’s first novel, and how Armand came to be in charge of it.

Interview with the Vampire Finally Ventures Beyond Rice’s First NovelAMC Networks

In the third episode of Interview with the Vampire season two, we get our first taste of history first presented in The Vampire Lestat. In the original novel, there is no hint of Lestat and Armand having a past. Or the theater ever belonging to Lestat at all. Rice reveals all of this in book two, along with Armand’s backstory. In “No Pain,” we see Armand’s retelling of events. He explains to the interviewer, Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), how he first met Lestat.

AMC Networks

In the series’ continuity, Armand and his coven spy Lestat parading about Paris in fine clothes and feeding upon mortals almost openly. He mentions that Lestat was made by the ancient vampire Magnus, who was an outcast from their coven. This is a minor deviation from the novels. In the books, Magnus was never part of the coven. Instead, he stole the vampiric blood from one of the coven entombed in the ground. Although Lestat leaves the theater to Armand, in the novels, he never performed with their troupe. As theater owner, one can interpret that as the founder. Most importantly, Lestat’s period of origin is 18th century France, which is when he became a vampire in the novels. Interview with the Vampire’s first season changed the events of the novel to the early 20th century.

Is Episode 3 a Hint of Interview with the Vampire Season 3?

All of this indicates that when the producers of Interview get to season three, and focus on the events of The Vampire Lestat, it will likely remain faithful to the book. While a period-accurate version of Interview with the Vampire was made in 1994, Lestat’s backstory was almost totally altered for the 2002 movie Queen of the Damned. The AMC series would be the first screen-accurate adaptation of Rice’s second novel. The book that really turned Lestat into a name brand, and truly got The Vampire Chronicles going.

AMC Networks

Although this episode gave us a part of Lestat’s backstory, there is still much left to show. Armand’s full backstory from Renaissance Venice, Lestat’s mother Gabrielle, and the ancient vampire queen Akasha are all a big part of Lestat’s tale. We’re excited for this series to finally get to this part of the story. This is where Rice’s supernatural world really opens up. Although it will be interesting to see how big a role Jacob Anderson’s Louis plays in season three. His character is barely in the second novel. Perhaps he interviews Lestat, who spills the tea on his history to his love at last? We’d honestly be there for that reinvention.

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The MAYFAIR WITCHES’ Mysterious Talamasca Finally Arrives in INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

Mayfair Witches is the second in what AMC is calling their “Immortal Universe,” which is their name for the two series based on the supernatural novels of Anne Rice (the first being Interview with the Vampire). In Mayfair Witches, they introduced to the element that Rice used to connect her vampiric protagonists with her family of witches—the psychic order known as the Talamasca. Now, the Talamasca has finally made their presence known in Interview with the Vampire in season two, in the episode “No Pain.” This appearance also connects to Rice’s fourth vampire novel, The Tale of the Body Thief.

AMC Networks

Although just now introduced in Interview with the Vampire the series, this ancient, scholarly order is what united Rice’s supernatural cosmology. Although the two series have made significant changes from the novels, the Talamasca connection remains. But what exactly is the Talamasca in Mayfair Witches, and now, Interview with the Vampire? And what is its history? Spoilers for not only for both AMC series thus far, but also several Anne Rice novels it is based on.

[image error]The Talamsca: “We watch. And we are always here.”

Rice first introduced the Talamasca in her 1988 novel Queen of the Damned. That was the third book in her Vampire Chronicles series. She described the Talamasca as an order dating back hundreds of years. It was their sacred duty to gather information on all things paranormal in the world, and investigate their validity. For the Talamasca, this would include watching over vampires and the Mayfair Witches. The group’s official motto, which they printed on their business cards, was “We watch. And we are always here.” Rice found the word “Talamasca” in a history book, learning it meant “animal mask” in Latin. (In some cultures, it meant witch or shaman.) Although very few things from the book transferred to the 2002 movie adaptation, the Talamasca was one of them.

Nerdist

The Order had motherhouses all over the world, with vaults containing all manner of supernatural artifacts of great historical value. The Talamasca took orders from mysterious Elders who no one ever saw, and whose true identities were shrouded in mystery. The Talamasca had motherhouses in cities like London, Rome, and Amsterdam, with other libraries spread all over the globe. However, the main branch was the London house. Two of the higher-ups in the Talamasca Order, elderly British gentlemen Aaron Lightner and David Talbot, first came to life in this novel. We should mention the Watchers Council on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was likely influenced as well by the Talamasca.

Chronicling the UndeadWarner Bros.

In Queen of the Damned, our true main Talamasca character was a young woman by the name of Jesse Reeves. Her superiors tasked her with validating the historical facts of events described in the memoirs of the vampires Louis and Lestat. Their life stories were published as the novels Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat. The world at large passed off these books as works of fiction, but the members of the Talamasca knew better. Jesse got wrapped up in the world of the vampires, and eventually became one herself. Meanwhile, Lestat became enamored with her superior, the aforementioned, David Talbot, leading to a long relationship between the two.

Talamasca in Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour, the basis for Mayfair WitchesKnopf

The second appearance of the Talamasca was in Rice’s 1990 novel The Witching Hour, the literary inspiration for Mayfair Witches. Aaron Lightner, a minor character in Queen of the Damned, was the main Talamasca agent asked to chronicle the history of the Mayfair clan of New Orleans witches. His paranormal powers include moving objects by telekinesis, and telepathy. His involvement with the family goes back decades, and later he begins to suspect that his benevolent, scholarly order might have darker intentions. For the Mayfair Witches TV series, they reimagined this Talamasca agent as the character Ciprien Grieve, a much younger African-American man, and the lead’s love interest.

The Talamasca Order appears in several Rice novels over the subsequent years. She included them in almost every novel involving the vampires and witches. In fact, one novel, Merrick, was about one of the Mayfair witches who is a part of the Talamasca, who then became a vampire. Throughout, the identity of the mysterious Elders remained a closely guarded secret. Rice toyed with the idea of doing an entire book about the origins of the Talamasca, but she never got around to it. However, Rice finally unlocked the origins of the Talamasca in her 2014 novel Prince Lestat, over 25 years after their introduction.

The Origins of the Talamasca, Explained

Rice finally revealed that three ancient beings founded the Order in 758 A.D. The original founder of the Talamasca was a being with the unusual name of Gremt Stryker Knollys. He was a disembodied spirit who gathered molecules to create a corporeal form. He encountered another similar spirit, Hesketh, who had once been a vampire, and whose spirit remained earthbound. Her vampire maker, the ancient Teskhamen, was still alive (so to speak). The three of them formed a pact to create a society whose purpose was to uncover the secrets of the supernatural, to better understand their own existence. They were the original Elders of the Talamasca, eventually passing down that mantle to human scholars, who then chose their own successors.

The Talamasca Finally Appears in Interview With the Vampire in Season 2

Episode three of Interview with the Vampire’s second season, “No Pain,” opens with our interviewer Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) having lunch at a restaurant in Dubai. He’s approached by a well-dressed man who sits next to him, played by Succession actor Justin Kirk. He lets him know that he is well aware of who he is, and who (and what) he is interviewing. Daniel plays coy, but the man introduces himself as Raglan James. He casually mentions the vulnerability of his computer. Later in the episode, we see several files suddenly appear on Daniel’s laptop, which include the emblem of The Talamasca. This is our first confirmation of the secretive order, first seen in Mayfair Witches, in Interview with the Vampire.

AMC Networks

Raglan James first appears in the Rice’s fourth vampire book, The Tale of the Body Thief. In that novel, he’s former Talamasca, kicked out of the order for attempting to procure supernatural power for himself. James has learned the trick of body switching. He offers the chance for Lestat to become human, while he gets to experience his vampiric body. Needless to say, things do not go smoothly. It’s interesting that the AMC series has chosen to introduce him so early in the narrative, no doubt to set him up for bigger things later.

As many suspected, the Talamasca appeared in Interview with the Vampire much sooner than they did in the novels. We don’t expect AMC to waste any time in unifying their Anne Rice series, and the Talamasca could be a way to bring Interview With the Vampire and Mayfair Witches together. Even if it means it happens much faster than it ever did in the novels.

Originally published on January 15, 2023.

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Armand’s Backstory Is Revealed in INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Season 2

Interview with the Vampire season two has finally ventured beyond the confines of Anne Rice’s first novel. In the second season episode “No Pain,” we get our first taste of the backstory of the Vampire Armand (Assad Zaman), the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac’s companion. This flashback scene, taking place in the 18th century, comes straight from Rice’s second vampire novel, The Vampire Lestat. But before we get to that, here’s a reminder of how Armand was a stealth character in season one of Interview with the Vampire all along.

Armand’s Interview with the Vampire Introduction

Interview with the Vampire ended its first seven-episode season at roughly the halfway point of the novel, although things played out in very different ways. One twist in particular resonated loudly with readers of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. Many fans wondered when the Vampire Armand, one of the series’ major book characters, would appear on the show. Turns out, that character has been there in the margins all along, ever since the very first episode. In the season one finale of Interview With the Vampire, Rashid, Louis supposedly human assistant, reveals himself to be the Vampire Armand. But who is Armand?

AMC Networks Posing as Louis’ Servant Rashid

In the first episode of Interview With the Vampire, viewers meet a mysterious character named Rashid (Assad Zaman) who is at the vampire Louis’ beck and call. Seemingly a human servant, we’ve even seen Rashid in direct sunlight. Well, directly coming through windows. He also fed Louis animal blood. We also saw Louis feed on him directly, suggesting he was a human blood bank for him. He was seemingly a devout Muslim who nevertheless called Louis “a god.” He didn’t speak much in episodes one through six, appearing as a protective human familiar. Like a less neurotic version of Guillermo from What We Do in the Shadows. And since there was no Rashid in the novels, viewers assumed he was an all-new character invented for television. Little did anyone suspect that in Interview With the Vampire, Rashid was really a well-known character from the book called Armand.

Rashid Is Really the Vampire ArmandAMC Networks

In episode seven, however, Louis revealed to Daniel the truth about Rashid. A truth Daniel suspected when he remembered that Rashid was with Louis in the San Francisco bar they first met at in 1973. And that Rashid looked exactly the same now as then. This could only mean that Rashid was a vampire himself. And it turns out his real name is Armand. The vampire Armand has been a principal vampire character since the very start. As to how he survived sunlight in Interview With the Vampire, Armand explains to Daniel in Interview With the Vampire that more ancient vampires can survive small amounts of solar exposure. Rice established this rule herself. Although in the novels, Armand is not considered old enough to be impervious to sunlight.

Who Is Armand in Interview with the Vampire?AMC Networks

So who is Interview With the Vampire‘s Armand? In the book, Louis and Claudia met Armand in 19th-century Paris, years after they escaped Lestat. He was 400 years old at that point and the master of a large coven of the undead. Armand’s coven posed as human actors only pretending to be vampires and performed for human audiences in the Theatre des Vampires. In the novel, Armand became a vampire in Renaissance Italy at age 17. Clearly, Armand was a full-grown adult upon his siring here. (This was like the film version too.) Armand fell for Louis and tried to lure him away from his obligations to his undead daughter Claudia. Essentially, so he could have him all to himself with no familial distractions.

When he realized that he could not cut the metaphorical umbilical cord, he secretly allowed his coven to execute Claudia, for the crime of trying to kill her maker Lestat. When Louis unleashed his revenge and slaughtered that coven, Armand allowed it to happen, seeing himself as free from the dead weight. He and Louis left Paris together as a couple, and it’s only decades later that Louis admitted to Armand that he allowed Claudia to die. It was only then that Louis left him behind. By the time Louis gave his interview in the book version of Interview With the Vampire, he and Armand had long since parted ways.

Armand, Reinvented for the Interview with the Vampire TV ShowAMC Networks

Clearly, much of this could not have happened in the TV series continuity. Armand and Louis are not only together in Interview With the Vampire, it seems they never parted. And the much older and more powerful Armand was subservient to Louis, despite that never being the case in the novels. In the books, the two maintain some affection for each other in the modern day but are not together in any real sense.

Armand’s Backstory (Partially) Revealed in Season 2AMC Networks

In season two’s second episode, we see that Armand and Louis’ meeting in Paris went much as it did in the novels. Armand is highly intrigued and attracted to Louis, even though his coven is wary of this mysterious American outsider. In episode 3 of the second season, “No Pain,” we get flashbacks to Armand in the late 18th century, learning more about his past. During this era, he is a 300-year-old vampire who leads a coven called the Children of Satan. These vampires dress in dirty clothing and sleep in graves. They believe it is God’s will they serve Satan, and therefore, they must eternally suffer.

Because of these ancient rules, the coven thinks of Lestat as an outcast for living among humans. Armand kidnaps Lestat’s human companion, Nicolas, as a way to lure him to the cemetery Les Innocents, where Armand’s coven operates from. Once Lestat enters the coven’s lair, they realize the rules about haunting graveyards and running from crucifixes are merely folk stories, myths perpetuated by Armand as a means of control over his flock. Armand is enraged that Lestat with his brazen ways has destroyed a coven that lasted hundreds of years.

AMC Networks

Armand, now demoralized after his coven has seen through his lies, tries to seduce Lestat as his companion. He feels the young vampire owes him for destroying his coven. Although Lestat is equally intrigued by Armand as he is with him, he ultimately rejects him. Lestat leaves France, leaving the theater he owns to Armand and his coven. He instructs them to use it as their new lair. It was Lestat’s notion that the coven poses as human actors who pretend to be vampires. All of this is information about Armand’s past that was never revealed by Rice in the first novel. It’s all crucial backstory she told first in 1985’s The Vampire Lestat.

Season two will no doubt give us even more backstory on Armand. After all, we still have not seen flashbacks to his origins in 15th century Venice, or Marius, his Roman vampire maker. The producers of Interview with the Vampire may wait for season three to show us these parts of his history. But we now know more about Armand in the universe of this series than ever before.

Originally published November 28, 2022.

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DOCTOR WHO Brings Back a Familiar Collective in ’73 Yards’

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We knew that UNIT and its fearless leader Kate Lethbridge-Stewart would continue to play a role in Doctor Who’s universe. The show featured them heavily in its 60th anniversary specials, where Donna became yet another former companion to join its ranks. There’s even a UNIT spinoff in the works at Disney+. This season’s trailer showed the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby at UNIT headquarters. But we surprisingly got a cameo with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT in this week’s Doctor Who adventure. “73 Yards” focuses heavily on Ruby’s quest to figure out why a mysterious (and creepy) old woman is following her. The problem is, the Doctor has disappeared and she must figure it out on her own. 

BBC Studios/Bad Wolf Studios/Disney+

A year into her ordeal, Ruby is left cold and broken with no family and no Doctor. Oh, and this woman is still following her from 73 yards away. She finally links up with Kate, who meets her in a public place with a plan for her UNIT soldiers to capture the woman. Their conversation is brief with Kate wondering why Ruby didn’t contact her earlier. Kate believes that the Doctor went silent for some reason and wants Ruby to take her to the TARDIS. It seems she wants to offer Ruby a place at UNIT but that never manifests. When the soldiers get close to her, all their shielding tech fails. They, like everyone else, hear her say something and run away, as does Kate, who is wearing an earpiece. 

We don’t see Kate nor UNIT anymore, so Ruby is left to live with the lady for a whopping 65 years. At the end, she’s an old lady who finally embraces the woman, who turns out to be her. Time resets and Old Ruby tells present Ruby to tell the Doctor not to step into that circle. We can assume that all is well once again. And we know we will see Kate and UNIT in the future.

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‘Tiny Elf Yoda’ Is the Jedi House Elf You Didn’t Know You Needed

Baby versions of everything somehow always work. Like the Muppets? You’ll love Muppet Babies. Enjoy Tom and Jerry? Then you’re probably going to love Tom and Jerry Kids even more. The biggest example of “Make it a baby and people will go nuts” is Grogu on The Mandalorian, who some folks still call “Baby Yoda.” Well, for those of you who want a teeny-tinier version of a baby Yoda all to yourself, one in his birthday suit no less, a highly realistic silicone art doll “Tiny Elf Yoda” is available. It comes from the folks at Creatures In My Bag, and you can see several images of the lil’ guy down below:

Click To View Gallery Creatures In My Bag Creatures In My Bag Creatures In My Bag Creatures In My Bag

According to the official Creatures in My Bag site, Tiny Elf Yoda’s whole body was created of platinum silicone, with a very realistic, soft, and smooth touch. The site reiterates that this is not a toy, but a highly detailed collectible piece. They are all hand-detailed, so slight variations may occur compared to the photos. Particularly in regard to skin coloring, as everything is handmade. They’ve closed the Pre-orders for Tiny Elf Yoda for now, but worry not, they’re opening up again in September, for the price of $189.00.

Creatures In My Bag

Creatures in My Bag also has other silicone infant versions of characters from pop culture. There’s a baby version of the Grinch, as well as tiny versions of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Also for Star Wars fans, there’s a tiny baby Greedo, of all characters. Although maybe it’s not Greedo, the listing just says “Rodian.” Appropriately enough, the Gelflings from The Dark Crystal also have adorable art doll versions of themselves. We must confess though, our favorite is Baby Cthulhu. Who doesn’t want an adorable tiny version of an ancient Elder God? To check them all out, be sure to head over to the Creatures in My Bag online shop.

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