Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Interview with the Vampire season 2 finale and Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles book series!
Summary
- Actors Assad Zaman and Eric Bogosian want to explore the unexpected romance between their characters Armand and Daniel in
Interview with the Vampire
. - They discuss the “Devil’s Minion” chapter from
Queen of the Damned
and its potential for adaptation in the series. - The actors express excitement about the show’s adaptation process, highlighting the imaginative world of Anne Rice’s books and the creative freedom of the adaptation while also sticking to the books’ big moments.
Interview with the Vampire stars Assad Zaman and Eric Bogosian want to see the TV series adapt one important romance from Anne Rice’s books onscreen. Interview with the Vampire season 2 had a key focus on Louis and his love for other vampires, in particular his relationship with Armand and his history with Lestat. By the end of season 2, Louis breaks up with Armand after discovering it was Lestat who saved him during the trial, finally making amends with his first love. At the same time, though, Armand ends up turning Daniel into a vampire.
Speaking with Screen Rant, Zaman and Bogosian, who portray Armand and Daniel respectively, spoke about how they want to see the unexpected romance between their characters later during Interview with the Vampire. The actors discuss the Devil’s Minion chapter of The Queen of the Damned, while also explaining why it would be important for the duo to have their brief romance later in the show. Check out what Zaman and Bogosian had to say below:
Assad Zaman
: I think it’s there in a number of ways that we can explore it, but this season was meant to tell a different story. We’ve very much focused on telling Louis’ story and finishing this chapter of Interview with the Vampire, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t sprinkled in elements that we do want to explore later on. There’s bits of The Vampire Lestat, there’s bits of “Devil’s Minion,” there’s bits of Queen of the Damned and Talamasca stuff that we are hopefully very much going to explore.And I have always said I am more willing to go down the “Devil’s Minion” route with Eric or Luke or both. It might be a nice parallel, alternate reality version to do a three-way. [Laughs]
Eric Bogosian
: I was playing catch up on reading the books when we started, and I just finished the seventh book after we got back from Prague. But way back in the beginning, we first met each other, Assad kept saying, “Yeah, we’re hooking up.” And I hadn’t gotten there yet, so I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but then I found out more and more.Obviously, these books are the foundation of the show. But in this specific case, Rolin has decided to expand the Daniel story greatly, and there are all kinds of things going on that aren’t in the books. We really don’t know where this is all going. As a writer, it’s definitely fascinating to watch a great writer reinterpret another great writer. I think it’s been really exciting to watch how Rolin plays this 3D chess with Anne Rice, because her world is so imaginative and full of so many nooks and crannies and ideas — it’s almost too much. He has to figure out, as anybody who adapts does, how to make compromises. In some ways, this is not a compromise. This is an additional thing, especially with Daniel. In the books, Daniel sort of peters out, and right now we’re not doing that at all. We’re revving up.
How Will Armand & Daniel Have Their Romantic Interaction?
Out of all the characters in Interview with the Vampire, Armand and Daniel have a complex relationship, with the ancient vampire having been convinced to spare the reporter’s life in 1973. Following the end of his interview with the pair of vampires, he ends up turned into one himself as punishment for telling Louis the truth about what happened the night Claudia was sentenced to death. Because of how fractured the trio of present day protagonists are by the end of season 2, it seems the Devil’s Minion isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
However, the show has been setting the stage for later books across its two seasons. One key example of this is Lestat’s last scene in season 2, which shows him practicing piano for a band performance. This is a reference to the second book in Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, titled The Vampire Lestat, the book upon which Interview with the Vampire season 3 will be based. Because of how meticulously the show has set up later events in the novel series, Daniel and Armand getting together will likely have plenty of justification before it actually happens.
Since The Queen of the Damned is the third book in the series, it wouldn’t be surprising for a potential season 4 to establish a romantic connection between the two. This would allow an extra season of development while staying true to when the events happen in the book. Even if their relationship is remixed, as much of Interview with the Vampire‘s story already is, the show can readily deliver on it happening uniquely, but in a way that feels similar to how it’s approached in the books.
Anne Rice’s
The Vampire Chronicles
consists of 13 books.