The Vampire Lestat: ‘Funhouse Mirror’ Louis and Narrative Time Jumps

The Vampire Lestat: After Dark Preview Special yielded lots of insight into the upcoming season of The Vampire Lestat. Jacob Anderson shared that this season’s version of Louis de Pointe du Lac is like a “funhouse mirror version of Louis,” which led to a conversation with Anderson, showrunner Rolin Jones and host Lizzie Bassett about perspectives in the upcoming season.

Anderson expressed a sense of surprise about the new season, given that his story was  wrapped up “kind of neat and elegant” at the end of Interview with the Vampire season 2. “I suddenly don’t know him quite as well as I did,” he noted. He went on to say that Jones told him, “Well, we have to mess it up. Go rub some dirt in it now.”

Jones, laughing, shared more insight. “I think we knew this Louis in the writers room in seasons 1 and 2. We knew he was there,” he said. “And if you go back once you see this, and you go back to season 1 and 2, you’ll see glimmers of this guy in that.”

Bassett jumped in and spoke about how this all plays out in the new season. “That’s what’s kind of amazing about all of your performances and the writing in this season,” she said. “It’s just like there’s so many Easter Eggs that work backwards and forwards. There’s a lot of narrative time jumps that are really incredible.”

This was all very insightful given that we know Louis’s perspective of the past was skewed, both because of his own recall and Armand’s (Assad Zaman) interference. That’s one of the reasons we see Lestat (Sam Reid) so furious about Daniel’s (Eric Bogosian) book and his quest in the new season to do a “rewrite.”

One of the main themes from season 2 was that memory is a monster, and my guess is that the fallout from slaying the monster will play out in The Vampire Lestat as Louis sees this with a new perspective, that of his maker, Lestat, clear of Armand’s tampering. It’s also safe to say that Louis might have to reckon with his own memories after seeing Lestat in a new light.

As for Bassett’s comments about the narrative time jumps and Easter Eggs that move backwards and forwards, it’ll be interesting to go back and watch the first two seasons of Interview with the Vampire to see if we can figure out what the writers were thinking as they brought the show to life.

What do you think about the narrative time jumps and how perspective might play a huge role in the new season? Let us know in the comments or on our socials!

The Vampire Lestat premieres Sunday, June 7, at 9pm ET/PT on AMC and streams on AMC+.