Interview With the Vampire Renewed for Season 3 by AMC

Season 3 of Interview With the Vampire will let Lestat tell his story.

The Vampire Lestat will have his say. On Wednesday, AMC announced that they are renewing Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire for a third season. The renewal news comes just a days ahead of the Season 2 finale, set to air on Sunday, July 30th. The renewal also comes soon after AMC announced a third series in the Immortal Universe, The Talamasca. According to the network, the third season of the critically acclaimed series will see Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) get to tell his story after Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) had his chance in the first two seasons.

Here's how AMC describes Season 3 of Interview With the Vampire: In season three, resentful of the perfunctory portrayal in the trashy bestseller 'Interview With The Vampire,' the Vampire Lestat sets his story straight in a way only the Vampire Lestat can—by starting a band and going on tour.  Gabrielle. Nicholas. Magnus. Marius. Those Who Must Be Kept. They join Louis, Armand, Molloy, Sam, Raglan, Fareed and others we can't tell you about yet on a sexy pilgrimage across space, time and trauma. No Auto-Tuning. No Trigger Warnings. All Feels Amplified.

"When you buy the rights to 18 Anne Rice novels that have sold more than 150 million copies, in your wildest dreams you hope there's a show as good as Interview on the other end," said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. "What Rolin has done with these stories and characters, working so closely with Mark, as the steward of this universe, has exceeded the loftiest version of our expectations. We can't wait to see where this creative team takes the series from here and know we are walking alongside an incredibly loyal and passionate base of fans who feel as strongly about this material as we do."

"Thank you to the brilliant casts and crews of the first two seasons that got us to this day. Thank you to the rabid, beautifully unwell fandom that scaled the castle walls to get us to this day," showrunner Rolin Jones said. "Thank you to Dan McDermott, Ben Davis for the funds and tools to continue the great work of dramatizing Anne Rice's extraordinary novels. And sincere apologies to the family and friends of actor Sam Reid, for the possession that continues to this day. Monsieur L extends his promise to return his body upon cancellation (may that evening never come.)"

For fans of Rice's novels, the premise of Season 3 of Interview With the Vampire will be somewhat familiar as it appears that the series will be taking on The Vampire Lestat, the second book in Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. It's something that Jones has previously said would be his focus for a third season of the series before the show was official renewed.

"There's no green light. I can't talk about it," Jones said, noting AMC has not yet renewed Interview With the Vampire (via Collider). "I can only talk about this: The next book I would do would be The Vampire Lestat. I have no idea who makes the decisions about why things are titled what they are. I think it's called The Vampire Lestat. That's what I think it's called, so that's what I would like to make. We're already pulling from other books. We've pulled from The Vampire Lestat. We've pulled from The Queen of the Damned. We've pulled from The Vampire Armand. We've pulled a little bit or at least some seeds from The Body Thief. There's some stuff from Prince Lestat. We've read them. We're building this things as if they're all one giant thing."

What is The Vampire Lestat About?

The book, first published in 1985, is the sequel to Interview With the Vampire. While Interview was narrated by Louis de Pointe du Lac, The Vampire Lestat is told from Lestat's point of view with the conceit of the novel being that it is Lestat's response to Louis' memories in Interview With the Vampire. The novel tells Lestat's history and origin story, including the founding of the Theatre des Vampires and his own version of the events of Interview With the Vampire. In particular, the novel expands the vampire culture and mythology of Rice's characters and further fleshes out the world setting up for novels to follow, such as The Queen of the Damned, the third book in the series.

Season 3 of Interview With the Vampire does not yet have an anticipated release date. The Season 2 finale will air Sunday, June 30th on AMC.