Interview With The Vampire Season 2 Release Window, New Cast, And More Info

"Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire," a new horror series that premiered last October on AMC, was one of the surprise hits of the fall season. Reboots, revivals, adaptations, and spinoffs are nothing new in the TV landscape, but that doesn't mean they're a sure thing, either. Far from it. Countless reinterpretations and revivifications of classic hits, from older series to movies and books hit TV and streaming every year, even every season, and many fail to catch.

I don't think I'm alone in saying that I expected very little from AMC's "Interview With The Vampire" series. Anne Rice had already written an extraordinary source novel, fusing for the first time in a populist mode a potent blend of the Romantic novel and the Gothic with fresh new frames, namely, explicit (rather than implicit, which is so common in the Gothic novel) supernatural elements and explicit queerness. On top of that, Neil Jordan had already adapted the novel to pitch-perfection in the 1994 film of the same name, capturing all the intoxicating darkness and heady romance of the twisted tale of vampire lovers Louis and Lestat, the former's interview with a cowering journalist, the latter's adoption of the unforgettable child vampire Claudia, and more. AMC was going to follow up Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, and Antonio Banderas with ... a bunch of nobodies?

But hey, if a human-turned-vampire like Louis can learn to enjoy drinking blood, I can learn to enjoy eating crow. The "Interview With The Vampire" series is great. /Film's Danielle Ryan called the series "Gorgeously grotesque, with some scenes guaranteed to shock even the most hardened horror aficionado." And fortunately for new converts such as ourselves, "Interview" is coming back for a second season. Here's everything we know.

Production on the first season of "Interview With The Vampire" was quite a protracted affair. Author Anne Rice, who passed away in 2021, fought a long battle to regain franchise rights to the Vampire Chronicles series, which encompasses 13 books, the 1994 film, and the 2002 follow-up "Queen of the Damned." Once she did in 2016, things started moving, but evidently not so fast, as it took over five years to get the series to air. Then again, that's not a highly unusual window of time to get a new series fully off the ground and operational. 

Given the series was a hit for AMC — receiving positive notices everywhere from RogerEbert.com, The New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, and of course, /Film — and the machinery of production is already assembled and well-oiled, we won't have to wait nearly as long for season 2. Though its future seemed uncertain amid the Hollywood strikes, AMC reached a deal with SAG-AFTRA to resume filming at the end of August 2023.

We have no hard release date for "Interview With The Vampire" season 2, but we do have a release window. Quite a wide one. A new teaser for the second season ends with a title card bearing in massive font "2024." Earlier reports indicated "early-to-mid 2024," but if the company releasing the series isn't getting any more specific about when, don't be surprised if "Interview" season 2 rolls onto streaming in the latter half of 2024.

Major spoilers for season one of "Interview With The Vampire" follow.

The first season of "Interview With The Vampire" roughly traced the first half of Anne Rice's book, which, although not technically overlong, really reads like a doorstopper (in the best way). Honestly, it's a wonder they fit everything that happens in those 200-some pages into only seven episodes of television. How Neil Jordan managed to capture even an iota of Rice's baroque page-turner in under two hours is a miracle. But season 2 will pick up right where season 1 left off, and likely cover the other half of the novel's events.

When we last left our bloodsucking brigade, Claudia and Louis successfully conspired to kill Lestat, one of the least killable characters in the entirety of English language fiction. By normal standards, they did a pretty thorough job. After deciding to leave new Orleans, Claudia convinces Lestat to throw one last rager. It's Mardi Gras, after all! So he does, and Claudia lays a series of traps (poisoned humans intended for bloodsucking) for Lestat. He foils one but falls prey to another. But of course, you can't kill a vampire with poison alone. The pair slit his throat, lock him in a trunk, and throw him in the city dump.

In season 2, Louis and Claudia have sailed to the Old World of Europe, the provenance of vampires, and take up residence at the grotesque carnival of the Parisian Théâtre des Vampires. Its sadistic leader, Santiago (Ben Daniels), will no doubt have dealings with both Louis and Claudia, and series creator Rolin Jones has teased that the present-day interview portion of the series will see some shake-ups in its Dubai setting, so that's fun too.

One of the best things about the new "Interview With The Vampire" series is its cast. Leading the troupe are the trio of Lestat (Sam Reid), the ageless dandy who presides over the turn of the century New Orleans scene with a debonair brand of brutality, Louis (Jacob Anderson), the anguished vampire recently turned by Lestat who rejects the impulses of his new, dead flesh, and Claudia (Bailey Bass), their adopted child of sorts who has her own unquenchable taste for blood.

One of the big shakeups come season 2 is Bass's replacement by the actress Delainey Hayles. Last year, Bass announced on Instagram that "due to a variety of unforeseen circumstances," she wouldn't be returning as Claudia, her self-described "dream role," for season 2. It's unclear how the series will handle the swap, if it's acknowledged at all. From the brief glimpses we get of Hayles' Claudia in the teasers that have been released for the next season, she seems to have taken Claudia on with the same tenacity and dark charm that Bass and Dunst before her.

Eric Bogosian will also be returning as Louis' present-day interlocutor, the titular interviewer Daniel Molloy, as will Assad Zaman as the smoldering love interest to Louis who began season 1 as the servant "Rashid," but was later revealed to be none other than the infamous Armand. New to the cast are Roxane Duran as Madeleine, and Ben Daniels, who will be playing the treacherous lead thespian at the Théâtre des Vampires, Santiago.

We've been given not just one, but two first looks at the second season of "Interview With The Vampire." The first was a trailer, released in August, that showed a smattering of scenes from across the season. The most recent teaser, posted on the AMC YouTube channel on Thursday, offers a single, unbroken scene. In it, Louis, Claudia, Armand, and Santiago roll up to "the estate of the family de la Croix." A guard asks them about their business, and Armand orders Santiago to gore the man through his throat. What ensues is an orgy of violence that Claudia enthusiastically rushes to join. Louis and Armand have a charged lovers' exchange while leaning against their bikes, and Santiago showcases what a complete psychopath he is, taunting and making faces at the crowd while he mutilates the mansion guard.

From New Orleans to Paris to Dubai and back again, it'll be a whirlwind. If season 2 follows the latter half of Rice's novel closely, we'll also be taken through the real vampire homeland of Eastern Europe and Transylvania. Lestat will also come back, which seems sure, given Sam Reid is billed as returning for season 2. It really wouldn't be an Anne Rice joint without The Vampire Lestat. So let's buckle in, wait for the premiere of season 2, and hope to see his luminous, malevolent face smiling back at us one more time.