Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. Seasons 1 and 2 adapted book one, Interview with the Vampire. Season 3 will adapt The Vampire Lestat and parts of the next book, The Queen of the Damned. Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid are flawlessly cast as Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt, respectively, and they successfully carry the show through all its deviances from the books.

While Reid and Anderson's performances are astonishing, it is Jones' contemporary and humane approach that makes the show what it is. It is not just entertaining, hilarious, and dramatic, but educational and kind, making powerful points about human nature and strength. Interview with the Vampire's characters and plot diverge heavily from the books but remain uncannily true to them in spirit. Perhaps this is because Anne Rice's son, Christopher, input into their creation. The show's biggest changes to the books somehow express their key messages perfectly.

10 It Is 2022 In The Interview With The Vampire TV Show

The First Book In The Series Is Set In The '70s

The Interview with the Vampire novel is set in the 1970s, whereas the AMC+ show is set in the modern day. This is a superficial change, at first glance, because most of the story occurs during flashbacks. As most of the show happens in flashbacks, the timing of the events of its primary story is not the most important thing about it. However, the show shifted away from the books in another profound way, and the show's 2022 setting speaks to that. It isn't quite the case that the show updated a 1970s story for the modern day.

The show leaves the book's 1970s plot right where it is, in the '70s, flashing back to it on occasion. Seasons 1 and 2 are an addendum to the '70s story, imagining what would have happened had Daniel never published his interview in the '70s and redid it in 2022. This is more than just respectful of the source material. This offers the story 50 years of progress, enabling it to scream Anne Rice's sexually and socially controversial themes from the rooftops, rather than approach them poetically and symbolically the way Anne Rice had to.

9 Louis Isn't A Slave Owner In The TV Show

Louis Is A Colonial Slave Owner In Book One Of The Vampire Chronicles

In Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, Louis is a white slave owner in New Orleans in the 1700s, but Louis is a mixed-race man in New Orleans in the 1910s in the show and doesn't own any slaves. Diverse casting doesn't generally constitute a significant change to the source material in adaptations, but Rolin Jones' genius race swap picked up on Anne Rice's core theme - the underdog breaking free.

Louis and all vampires in Anne Rice's novels represent the underdog, as Anne Rice confirmed. The 1700s Louis of Rice's Southern Gothic horror novel makes total sense, creating rich, gothic imagery. However, Jones' race swap accomplishes many things. It makes Louis even more Louis - an outcast who sympathizes with those that society oppresses. And, it brings race to the core of the empowerment parable in Anne Rice's already complex and intersectional story of self-realization.

8 Louis Is Turned In The 1910s In The Interview With The Vampire TV Show

Louis Is Turned In The 1700s In The Book

It isn't just Interview with the Vampire's primary setting that jumped forward in time, but its flashback setting. The Anne Rice book, Interview with the Vampire, opens with Daniel interviewing Louis in the '70s, but most of the book consists of Louis' monologue as he describes his past. As such, the first third of the book is really set in the 1700s on and near Louis' New Orleans plantation as he gets to know Lestat. The TV show represents this monologue with flashbacks, naturally. Set in 2022, the TV show could have easily kept Anne Rice's 1700s story.

Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire was published in 1976.

The show didn't have to change the timing of its flashbacks just because it had updated the interview arc for modern times. The show brought everything forward, proving its commitment to its messaging. The 1910s and '20s offered the show more opportunity than the 1700s to explore race and sexuality, which it was set on doing. It wasn't enough for Daniel and Louis to be more daring in the show than they were in the book during their interview, so the show enabled Louis and Lestat to be more daring when they met too.

7 Interview With The Vampire Is Set In Dubai

The Anne Rice Book Is Set In New Orleans

Louis de Pointe du Lac lives in Dubai in AMC's Interview with the Vampire, but he lives in San Francisco in the book. This occurs due to the book's time skip, whereby Louis and Daniel did have their San Francisco interview in the '70s, but are now doing another interview in Dubai. Louis' move to Dubai is strangely insightful and plays on what Anne Rice wrote about Louis. Louis was a shrewd businessman and made a living doing what many people did at the time, running a sugar plantation in the 1700s.

Falling in line with this, the show had Louis run a club on a key boulevard in New Orleans. Louis is a pimp in the 1910s, which is crazily bold and contradicts its positioning of him as a victim. But, in a way, it is a flawless reimagining of the complex character - his life's work was deciding whether he was the victim or the perpetrator. Then, in the modern day, Louis moves his capitalistic endeavors to a renowned hub of moneymakers - Dubai.

6 Claudia Is Older In Interview With The Vampire

Claudia Is Only Five In The Book

Claudia is turned at five in the book but 14 in the TV show. While Bailey Bass ruled screens as a 14-year-old Claudia at first, Delainey Hayles dominated the show as the petulant character toward the end of Interview with the Vampire season 2. Both actresses nailed the part, but a five-year-old actress probably wouldn't have been able to handle topics as mature as the show is dealing with.

An older Claudia was able to have romantic scenes with adults as old as Haynes without it being extremely uncomfortable.

Kirsten Dunst played a baby-faced Claudia in Interview with the Vampire, the 1994 movie. Assuming the role of Claudia when she was 11, the diminutive Dunst was a dead ringer for the curly-haired Claudia of the novels. However, the TV show's update of Claudia made her far more versatile. An older Claudia was able to have romantic scenes with adults as old as Haynes without it being extremely uncomfortable.

5 Louis Stayed With Armand In The TV Show

Louis Left Armand Long Before The '70s In The Book

Louis de Pointe du Lac is done with Armand by the end of 1976's Interview with the Vampire, but AMC+'s Louis doesn't let Armand go until 2022. Reading Anne Rice's books in order reveals Louis' relationship with Armand continuing after the dissolution of the Théâtre des Vampires. Armand and Louis do stay together in the book for decades after the theater incident. However, they don't stay together until the 1970s, which is when Daniel interviews Louis.

Armand is the focus of the sixth Vampire Chronicle, The Vampire Armand.

In the TV show, Armand manipulates Louis into staying with him until the modern day. In some ways, this is the show's biggest and most consequential difference from the books. Daniel has nothing to do with Armand until after the interview in the book, but Armand still being with Louis the whole time adds Daniel to a weird sort of love triangle that will only become more apparent in the show over time.

4 Daniel Comes Between Louis & Armand In The TV Show

Armand Is Single When He Meets Daniel In The Book

Armand and Louis are still together in 2022 in the TV show, unlike in the book, making Daniel's insertion into the narrative a huge issue in their relationship. This is a clever move, in many ways. For one, Daniel Molloy is one of The Vampire Chronicles' best characters, and the show capitalizes on this by amplifying his role. Secondly, adding a third to the romantic and toxic supernova that is Louis and Armand made a horror fantasy a horror romantasy. Of course, the main way the show accomplished its romantasy status was through its changes to Louis and Lestat's relationship.

Daniel's romantic importance is a key plot device, while it is marginal in the books.

However, the show knows its strengths and builds on this telenovela atmosphere while never losing depth of theme. Also, Daniel's romantic importance to Louis and Armand is a key plot device, while Armand and Daniel's romance is marginal in the books. Louis and Daniel's attraction in the '70s incensed Armand, triggering the memory wipe that made Louis and Daniel both determined to meet again and finally understand what had happened to them all those years ago. It is unclear if Armand erased memories of a romance with Daniel too or if that is still to come in the show.

3 Louis & Lestat Are Official In Interview With The Vampire

Louis & Lestat Aren't Together Until The End Of The Vampire Chronicles

Louis and Lestat are together in the Interview with the Vampire TV show, whereas there is only an implied attraction between them in the 1976 novel. Louis finally finds a peaceful happiness with the troublesome Lestat de Lioncourt by the end of The Vampire Chronicles. Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles pursued a long and winding road, and at many points, it seemed as if Louis and Lestat would die or resent the other forever. This extraordinary tension was key in the novels, which always explored what exactly was going on between the two as a subplot.

Louis' resentment of Lestat clearly belied deep feelings that Rice chose not to reveal at the time of writing to help ensure commercial success at a homophobic time.

Importantly, Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire was hugely sensual and homoerotic, and Louis' resentment of Lestat clearly belied deep feelings that Rice chose not to reveal at the time of writing to help ensure commercial success at a homophobic time. The idea of Lestat and Louis living and traveling together as companions, locked in their bizarre mutual dependency, was ripe for a modern-day retelling. The failed marriage narrative of Interview with the Vampire seasons 1 and 2 was an ingenious interpretation of the book.

2 Daniel Is Older In The Interview With The Vampire TV Show

Daniel Is 22 In Book One Of The Vampire Chronicles

Another consequence of bringing the whole story forward by 50 years is that Daniel Molloy is older in the show than he is in the book. Daniel Molloy is 22 when he meets Louis in both the show and the book, but only the show displayed him 49 years later, older, wiser, funnier, and far more cynical. This version of Daniel is fit to lead the story that Louis really leads in the book.

Giving the show an older character as its lead was an incredibly interesting choice in and of itself. It is the logical consequence of the TV show's time skip, but it is a change that feels as if it carries an importance all its own. Vampires tend to be young in contemporary horror and fantasy. Interview with the Vampire turns this on its head with its surprise aging up of Daniel Molloy.

1 Daniel Is Far More Important In The Interview With The Vampire TV Show

Daniel Has Much Less Dialogue In The Book

Daniel Molloy is a main character in the Interview with the Vampire TV show but is fairly marginal in the Anne Rice books. Making Daniel older enabled the show to change his character and get creative. Eric Bogosian's inspired Daniel is snarky, sarcastic, successful, intelligent, and more than a match for the ancient vampires he deals with in seasons 1 and 2.

Daniel's importance in the show is at the core of its premise. The show builds on Anne Rice's story, speculating that Louis' interview with Daniel went horribly wrong in the '70s due to Armand's jealous intrusion. It is this intrusion that means that Louis and Daniel never resolved their work together in the '70s. In losing their memories, both Louis and Daniel are thrown together into the crime thriller of Interview with the Vampire seasons 1 and 2, solving the mystery of their pasts together.