A whole new era begins. The upcoming third season of The Vampire Lestat — the artist, er, series, formerly known as Interview with the Vampire — returns to AMC+ on June 7, and it’s bringing a brand new interview and perspective, as the rockstar vampire (Sam Reid) wants to set the record straight.
A new trailer today shows off several key moments that hint at just how much this season is pulling from Lestat’s past — and how unstable his present is becoming.
There are flashes of his new dynamic with journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), who joins him on the road for this latest interview, this time a rock-style documentary. And there’s plenty of story to unpack here. The footage also teases Lestat reuniting with his mother, Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle), and his former paramour Louis (Jacob Anderson) — both relationships that are as complicated as they are intimate. There’s what looks to be his turning in Magnus’ tower, and brief glimpses of his life in Paris with Nikki, his first love. Then there’s the inclusion of Baby Jenks, who could be functioning as a stand-in for his dead daughter Claudia (Delainey Hayles), shown both passed out and being fed on during a performance.
Armand (Assad Zaman) warns Daniel, his only fledgling, that “he’s going to get us killed,” presumably referring to Lestat and the very public nature of his music (and oh, how excited I am to have these two back on my screen).
And throughout it all, Lestat himself seems to be coming apart at the seams, where nothing is enough for him. Not enough fans, not enough drugs, not enough blood. He’s shown sick in a bathroom, vomiting blood, though whether from overindulgence, drugs, or something more mysterious isn’t yet clear.
It all points to what may be the most unhinged version of the series yet, as Lestat pushes himself to extremes, chasing art, truth, and perhaps a kind of self-destruction that feels less like a choice and more like the only way he knows how to confront his past.
For anyone who hasn’t yet tuned into the series, I have one important question to ask you — what are you even doing with your life? This is what great television is supposed to be — vicious and as beautiful as it is ugly, exploring what it truly takes to endure when you’ve got all the time in the world at your fingertips, but you’re still just you at the end of the day. Could anything be worse? Or better? It’s unabashedly queer, but it’s also just extraordinary television, the kind of writing you’d expect from a stage play rather than a prestige drama, and the obvious care in the crafting of it is something you so rarely see in today’s era of streaming. There’s a reason it’s on many critics “best of” lists.
Fans can find Lestat’s first two songs, “Long Face” and “All Fall Down”, on streaming services, including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.
We’ll be putting this one on repeat until June 7.
