Sam Reid teases Lestat's return in 'spine-tinglingly good' Interview With the Vampire season 2

Rumors of Lestat de Lioncourt's death have been greatly exaggerated in Interview With the Vampire.

Sam Reid's villainous bloodsucker seemed to meet his end in the season 1 finale of AMC's adaptation of Anne Rice's iconic gothic romance, betrayed by his lover Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) and their adopted daughter Claudia (originally portrayed by Bailey Bass in season 1, but recast with Delainey Hayles for season 2). But unreliable narrator Louis wouldn't let Claudia burn Lestat's body, thereby giving him a chance to eventually regain his strength by feeding on the rats where they dumped his body.

As a result, Lestat will return in season 2 to wreak more havoc — but Reid jokes that he's not sure "if that's a good thing."

"We have a lot of fun making the show, but Lestat is his own complicated little monster," Reid tells EW in an interview conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike. "It's fun to think about the way he would approach things and how he would see certain things because he's definitely got his own way of looking at the world."

Below, Reid dives deep on what fans can expect from season 2. Plus, check out EW's exclusive first look photos from the new season. And for those in San Diego for Comic-Con 2023, be sure to check out the show's free activation, where fans can tour a New Orleans-inspired immersive experience with several photo and video opportunities in iconic locations, and more!

Larry Horricks/AMC Sam Reid as Lestat De Lioncourt on 'Interview With the Vampire'

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Book readers knew the big betrayal where Louis and Claudia double-cross Lestat was coming. But how does the change to the source material, where it's Louis who makes the final blow instead of Claudia, change things going into season 2?

SAM REID: That's a great question but I don't know if I can fully answer it at this point in time. I don't even know if I can say this, but the show's shot in Europe, we're shooting right now in Prague, so there is a trip to Europe, so we're following the main plot points of the books. We play a lot with memory in the show, and we see Lestat more potentially as a haunting, whether that's a real threat or it's a psychological threat, and how Louis processes that relationship and the way that he's dealing with the repercussions of murdering your, albeit probably rightly so, lover, maker, and mentor. Those who have read the books or even seen the film know that there is a journey yet to discover, but I don't want to give too much about that away yet.

What has it been like getting to dig into Lestat's season 2 journey now that everything's changed for him?

I'm excited to see Lestat learn some hard lessons, but he's an incredibly resilient, enduring character who's had to put his own desires first for a number of reasons. And what are you left with when you're left to deal with yourself, when you're killed by the person you love the most? Obviously a vampire dying is exceptionally difficult, but when you live an immortal life, you go through certain stages, so I am most interested in learning and discovering about Lestat's process of accepting that. And I'm not sure if he accepts it entirely. I'm not sure if he feels great about it.

Knowing Lestat, there's a good chance there's no acceptance on his end.

[Laughs] Yeah, he doesn't accept anything apart from his own way, really. That was a wonderful thing that Anne Rice set up with that character and the way that she explores him — he's a man of action. Now, the action might be completely insane and diabolical and verging on ... well, I don't want to say evil, but verging on bad, because he does love to be bad. But he is not an idle guy, he doesn't really sit around. And if he is sitting around, he's staring at the details in the wallpaper. He's always doing something, he's always busy.

Where does season 2 pick up for him?

We're shooting in Prague right now, and we also shoot in Paris, and there will be a return to New Orleans. What is really exciting about this season is seeing the vampire theater, the Théâtre des Vampires. It's been very, very fun creating that world, and we've been very lucky to play in it. It's integral to the overarching world, the idea that for creatures that have to hide in the shadows, that have to stay away from public knowledge, they have found a way to be themselves and present themselves as vampires on stage for an unwitting audience, or unbeknownst to the audience, and there's a lot of fun to be had with that. I cannot wait for people to see that. We have eight hours to expand the second half of the book, so you're going to see a lot of vampire theater. A lot.

AMC Jacob Anderson on 'Interview With the Vampire'

There's a new actress playing Claudia this season, so what was it like having Delainey join the show?

Delainey is extraordinary. She is a beautiful actress, and I think what she's brought to Claudia is exceptional. It's different and it's a change, but it's also, it's such a beloved character and I think Delainey really makes it her own. I can't wait for people to see her in this role.

So much of the first season was about your onscreen dynamic with Jacob, so how has that changed for season 2 now that Lestat and Louis have had this "breakup?"

They are apart, and Louis has a new partner, Armand, played by Assad Zaman. We'll find out a lot more about Armand and his backstory and who he is as a character, because Assad didn't really get the chance to play Armand last season. Armand is a really awesome character that has a lot of connections to a lot of the vampires. He's very old. Finding out more about Armand, and Louis and Armand's relationship and their dynamic, which is very different to Louis and Lestat, it's exciting. It's a wild ride. I get tingles when I see Assad as Armand — it's very spine-tinglingly good. As is Ben Daniels, who plays Santiago. People are in for a real treat.

What other changes to the book can fans expect to see in season 2?

The way that they have made the changes to the book really stays true to the soul of the book and expands certain moments. There are enough to keep fans of the book series interested and excited about what is happening, and enough teasers to the expanded universe that exists within Anne Rice's books. What I think is going to be exciting for people to see is that this season really breaks open. It was sort of like a little domestic drama between three vampires in the first season, and we're now meeting a lot more vampires and the world begins to expand. It is a lot bigger than just that drawing room in New Orleans. They have found a way to weave in lots of little Easter eggs about where we're going in the future, and that's exciting.

Anne Rice wasn't afraid to break rules, to push boundaries, and make people unhappy with some of the choices that she made. She's not always out to give everyone what they want, and it is confronting as a fan of a book to sort of read some of those things. And we honor that in the show. We're not always making choices that are going to make everyone happy. We're honoring that kind of anarchic element that Anne Rice had in her writing.

Watch the first trailer for Interview With the Vampire season 2 below:

Interview With the Vampire returns in 2024 on AMC.

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