The Vampire Lestat Showrunner Reveals Hidden Meanings and Future Stories Hinted at in the Season 3 Finale

Spoilers travel for The Vampire Lestat Season 3, Episode 7 - “The Failures” which is disposable connected AMC and AMC+ now.

While Season 3 of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat (formerly known arsenic Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire) was promoted done the lens of Lestat de Lioncourt’s “ROCK STAR!” image, successful information the play was truly astir exposing 200 years worthy of vulnerabilities festering wrong this mercurial bloodsucker (played by Sam Reid).

In this season’s finale episode, “The Failures,” a beheaded Lestat mulls his multitude of sins arsenic they travel backmost to haunt him successful a caput palace of his ain making. At the aforesaid time, an arsenic headless Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) sits successful a butcher shop, defiantly staring astatine his disembodied torso portion his very aggravated ex-lover Armand (Assad Zaman) tries to unit him to marque amends. There’s nary much runway for these star-crossed lovers (known by their fans arsenic “Loustat”) to outrun their mediocre choices, truthful “The Failures” yet travel to carnivore for them both, virtually and figuratively.

Showrunner Rolin Jones tells IGN that the full play was gathering to their parallel confessionals. “Just watching those 2 [stories] together, successful theory, it's expected to beryllium bringing Lestat and Louis' journeys together.”

Louis Making Amends

In the aftermath of their dual beheading by Armand and Molloy (Eric Bogosian) successful “Montreal,” Louis wakes to find his inactive conscious caput is connected a pike positioned to look astatine his beheaded torso. Jones was thrilled to thin into specified a horrifying tableaux: “In the fearfulness world, we're astir apt known arsenic 'horror lite,' truthful the thought that the communicative allowed itself to spell determination for astatine slightest fractional of this finale, that was america going, ‘Oh, we tin bash the fearfulness too.’”

Jones looked to modern fearfulness arsenic a guidepost for however helium explored the existential horrors that unrecorded wrong these vampires. “There's 5 to 10 [recent] movies that springiness you each the terror, and past they spell immoderate different place,” helium says with admiration. “It's been truthful elevated recently. Horror is similar the extremities of what we're each susceptible of, right? And so, it was amusive to spot that [here].”

Armand revealing himself to Louis arsenic the villain of the play is simply a twist that Jones says was highly hard to execute. “Normally, we would person shown you,” helium says of Armand’s stealthy broadside machinations. “But each the backtracking of Armand's lurking is fixated connected the Regina [Delainey Hayles] of it all, and that's specified a agelong play connected some sides.”

Jones says they went done a batch of effort to support that a concealed until Armand tells a shattered Louis, and a terrified Regina has to explicate herself. “For anybody who is rewatching, conscionable inquire yourself successful each country — where's Armand now?” says the showrunner. “You could consciousness him. Like Lestat says, he's similar wallpaper that peels disconnected dilatory to suffocate you, past jumps connected you. That's what's going connected and it's hard to propulsion disconnected due to the fact that you person to withhold Assad truthful much.”

But that twist does get Louis to yet recognize the extent of the harm he’s inflicted connected Armand, which prompts him to marque genuine amends to Armand and to forgive Regina arsenic well. Says Jones of Louis’ alteration of heart, “[His] existent crook determination is that question from ‘I privation to prevention Regina’ to ‘What americium I really accountable for erstwhile I froze this feline out?’ Yes, this mightiness beryllium a small utmost wherever [he’s] astatine close now. But what didn't [Louis] accidental erstwhile helium threw him into the partition successful Dubai? So I consciousness precise empathetic towards Armand astatine that moment.”

While Jones doesn’t accidental whether Regina's flight signifies the adjacent of Hayles’ clip connected the series, helium does impulse the assemblage to rewatch the character’s arc this season. “Go look astatine Delainey. Look astatine what she's doing successful those scenes that you thought were 1 note,” helium says of her diner scenes with Louis and Lestat. “They're not. There's truthful overmuch going on, and she's been truthful crippled astir talking astir it due to the fact that she truly had to hold for this [finale] to come. Now she's escaped to brag, and she should brag. She's unthinkable this season.”

Lestat’s Nightmare Dinner Party

Because Season 3 is told from Lestat’s constituent of view, astir of the finale takes spot wrong the vampire’s muddled caput arsenic helium dreams of being taken to the eating country of his erstwhile Auvergne home. There, helium finds the motley unit of his shaper Magnus (Damien Atkins), mommy Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle), archetypal emotion Nikki (Joseph Potter), New Orleans epoch Louis, ex-lover Antoinette (Maura Grace Athari), Marius de Romanus (Christopher Heyerdahl) and drummer TC (Sarah Swire).

Asked if that array was acceptable from the start, oregon if it went done antithetic guests, Jones confirms determination were galore iterations successful the writing, and past scheduling of the actors. “It was mode weirder successful its aboriginal stages. We had versions with Claudia there. But aft the séance, it was like, ‘What's left?’” helium says of that almighty country of closure. “She was mode harder connected Louis successful the séance than she was connected Lestat. I deliberation she was like, ‘You cognize what'll truly fuck up Lestat? Silence.’ That she doesn't springiness a crap anymore seemed similar the past grace enactment of Claudia.”

Jones remembers that they astir mislaid retired connected Magnus histrion Atkins due to the fact that helium was booked connected a large theatre job, but they worked it out. “And I wanted Joey Chestnut to beryllium there, eating the crap retired of his soul,” the showrunner laughs.

'It was mode weirder successful its aboriginal stages.' -showrunner Rolin Jones“

Yes, Joey Chestnut, the competitory eater and 18-time victor of the Mustard Yellow Belt, was name-checked by Lestat this season, and Jones says helium wanted an existent cameo astatine the table. “We kept trying to telephone his manager and archer her what it was, and they conscionable kept laughing america off. So determination was much Joey Chestnut successful this play than what is successful there.”

The Devil successful the Details

Jones says Lestat’s “maddening, defense-ridden, pop-culture referenced narration” successful the archetypal mates of episodes this play is mentation for the strength and density of this finale. “He's got the travel of ‘The Failures’ to spell from ‘I whitethorn person a small something to bash with it’ to ‘It was each my fault,’” Jones says of Lestat owning his choices. This successful crook leads to the startling cliffhanger ending.

While Lestat is successful his dream-like authorities facing his accusers, Jones and the bid editors revisit each epoch of the vampire’s beingness successful specifically crafted montages, oregon arsenic remixed memories which unit the vampire to look his perceived failures anew. “It's really reframing not lone alternate takes, but really wherever the instrumentality is, oregon wherever Lestat's caput is, and virtually manipulating some shots to marque them spell connected apical of each other,” Jones says of the complexity of what they edited together. “There was a batch of enactment there, and it takes a batch of hazard for my beauteous originative suits astatine AMC, and adjacent the actors, to [accept], ‘Hey, we're going to physique portion of this storytelling successful the edit, and you're going to person to spot us.’”

Ultimately, Jones says Lestat’s regrets are what led those supercuts, truthful each of them uncover a batch astir the vampire. He points retired a infinitesimal erstwhile Lestat is looking astatine Nikki which elicits a bid of memories until they clasp connected Louis walking past. “That was really the infinitesimal wherever [Lestat] had been caught successful the Antoinette of it all,” Jones pinpoints. “And that infinitesimal retired of everything lives successful his decease and dying moments arsenic a way larger infinitesimal than hurling him from the sky, oregon thing similar that. These are betrayals that are there. And aboriginal on, determination is simply a one-second breath, which is 24 frames that are precise specifically thought about, [in presumption of] what are those [memories] coming back? For the detectives retired there, there's a lot.”

What About Lestat’s Future?

A timer brings Lestat person and person to the extremity of his interior meditation… and eventual acceptance of himself. One past idiosyncratic emerges to talk with Lestat, and it’s Louis’ member Paul de Pointe du Lac (Steven G. Norfleet), who committed termination successful the precise archetypal episode, "In Throes of Increasing Wonder..."

“It was Louis for the longest time,” Jones reveals astir who that idiosyncratic was successful the archetypal drafts. “But each clip thing felt well-made this year, it felt incorrect similar you conscionable hadn't done the work, oregon you hadn't recovered that other level.

“There's truthful overmuch self-loathing successful this season, and truthful overmuch successful this episode,” Jones continues, pointing retired what Louis thinks he’s proceeding from those who mean truthful overmuch to him. “Those radical don't needfully consciousness that mode astir you, dude. That is you and specified a projection. And so, who would beryllium the messenger that says, ‘It's okay. You're not each bad. You person done thing beauteous and determination is immoderate quality wrong you?’”

Even though Paul whitethorn not person approved of Louis’ beingness choices, helium knew however to work his member adjacent portion wrestling with his ain demons. “I deliberation there's a batch of harm to get done with Lestat, and truthful overmuch of it is self-made,” Jones offers. “But determination are germs of large quality wrong him, and [Paul] seemed similar the lone idiosyncratic that could person travel retired with that.”

Turns retired that Paul is besides a harbinger of what’s to come. Jones acknowledges, “When helium looks up, helium says thing from the books. There is an vigor that's astir to travel successful that is pistillate rage, writ large,” helium says, teasing the world-changing events successful Anne Rice’s publication Queen of the Damned. “In my ain universe, surviving successful a matriarchal world, I deliberation that's right.”

'The plan for a imaginable Season 4 and a imaginable Season 5 started beauteous heavy into the shooting of Season 2.'“

Asked if helium expects a imaginable Season 4 to decorativeness Lestat’s story, oregon to displacement position to Akasha successful Queen of the Damned, Jones says, “The savvy of this twelvemonth was that rubric alteration which comes from marketing, truthful God bless them. I person nary power implicit these things. I'm inactive conscionable a typing monkey,” helium jokes. “What I would accidental is, the plan for a imaginable Season 4 and a imaginable Season 5 started beauteous heavy into the shooting of Season 2 with maine and [executive producer] Hannah [Moscovitch] walking astir Prague, conscionable talking – arsenic we were going from editing to the signifier – about, however would we bash it?”

He acknowledges that plentifulness of important things happened disconnected surface this year, which was by design, not by mishap arsenic immoderate fans whitethorn think. “It's not conscionable the concert,” helium says of the unseen Great Conversion. “There's a batch of worldly to revisit.

“And if you cognize Queen of the Damned truly well, it is simply a bid of chapters of strict constituent of views. So, get ready, folks! This is portion two,” helium says of what remains untold. “And if there's worldly that mightiness person frustrated you this year, relax. Everyone volition privation to remark connected that past changeable of Montreal, but it ain't conscionable that. A batch of crap went down this year. And there's a mates of guys sitting successful an auction room,” helium recalls astir the opening country of this season. “They are not going astatine each other's throats. The puzzle volition each travel unneurotic fixed there's a Season 4.”