Why Interview With the Vampire’s Finale Didn’t Stick to the Book

As followers of Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire know, when Louis and Claudia first try and homicide Lestat within the books, it’s a a lot much less gory affair than the AMC collection—which simply launched its season one finale—may lead you to consider.

Instead of present’s campy Mardi Gras ball adopted by a bloodbath on the Rue Royale, the unique story has Claudia working alone to poison and exsanguinate her maker. Then, as she and Louis make their escape to Europe, Lestat exhibits up and makes an attempt to cease them. Louis then pushes him right into a constructing and units it on hearth, abandoning Lestat to the flames. In a post-finale interview, the solid and crew talked about why the story change was made.

The collection has Louis as an lively participant within the closing act of destroying Lestat, pulling him off the sidelines and forcing a blade into his hand. Claudia poisons him, sure, but it surely’s Louis who slits Lestat’s throat. For Jacob Anderson, who performs Louis, the scene was extra emotional than he anticipated. “I was a mess,” he mentioned to Variety. “I cried my eyes out… I kind of lost myself in those scenes. I got very freaked out by the idea of it all ending, and also doing this to Sam [Reid, who plays Lestat]—because it means this dynamic is going to change next year. It’s going to be different. It kind of had to be done at my hand, and that was heartbreaking.”

Although Anderson may need damaged down throughout filming, Louis isn’t pressured to undergo with the ultimate act of setting Lestat on hearth. Anderson mentioned that, “to kill [Lestat] would be to kill a part of himself, and a significant part of who [Louis] has become.” Instead, Lestat is put in a coffin and set out with the trash. He’s taken to a dump, and one of many final scenes we now have within the collection is the coffin opening and Lestat reaching out to seize at a scurrying rat.

“It would be sort of a boring cliffhanger to leave the show on, because you know Lestat is coming back,” Reid mentioned. He’s not flawed—anybody who’s learn the books is aware of that Lestat lasts lengthy after the occasions of Interview. Still, the tried homicide means one thing to Lestat, even when dying doesn’t stick.

“I think he accepts that Louis is going to kill him, and understands, very much in that last moment, that he needs to do this,” mentioned Reid. Interview showrunner Rolin Jones agreed, saying that on this present, which totally and whole-heartedly embraces the twisted romance at its middle, love needed to be the factor to deliver Lestat down.

“For Lestat, his love language is murder,” Jones mentioned. “So who else should it be than [Louis]?”

All episodes of Interview With the Vampire can be found to stream on AMC+.

Want extra io9 information? Check out when to count on the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and every part it is advisable to learn about James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water.