Sam Reid will take hold of the mic in the “wild” — and musical — third season of Interview with the Vampire.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the British actor teased his return as the hedonistic French vampire Lestat de Lioncourt in season three, which is set to adapt Anne Rice’s beloved second novel, The Vampire Lestat.
Originally published in 1985, the book chronicles Lestat’s rise to fame as an ’80s rock star, his early experiences with vampirism and his existential quest for meaning.
It also retells some of the events of Interview with the Vampire from Lestat’s point of view — reframing the story previously narrated by Louis de Pointe du Lac and published in-universe by Daniel Molloy.
Speaking to EW about the third season’s bold departure from its predecessors, Reid described it as “pretty wild,” adding: “I can’t really believe we’re doing it. Sometimes I’m like, ‘What the hell?!’
“Lestat has an intention to express his views and his experience through music, music videos, and recordings, and all this kind of stuff. And they are finding a wonderful, cool way to weave that through a lot of the denser parts.”
Widely praised for his performance as Lestat — and considered one of the biggest snubs of the 2025 Emmy Awards — Reid has been collaborating closely with series composer Daniel Hart, taking a music-first approach to the character’s arc in season three.
“There’s something inherently vampiric about rock music, and that’s not really necessarily what is the flavor of the month at the moment in terms of what is desirable in music,” Reid explained.
“And so there’s something about harking back to sounds that might feel from different periods, but also trying to bring them back into the now and the contemporary, but also tie them into his own personal journey. Because I think at the end of the day, Lestat is a musician that writes from personal experience.”
Although Interview with the Vampire has only started filming its third season, Reid revealed that fans will hear Lestat’s musical talents “sooner rather than later”: “I hope people are happy.
“You know that some people are never going to be happy, but all we can do is approach it with love and care, which we are. There’s a lot of love and care being put into it.”
Although Lestat’s rock era is front and centre this season, Reid explained that the underlying themes are quite “deep,” as the character grapples with what it means to be a vampire — “but it’s actually very fun and silly because Lestat is a big clown, so he is not as chest-bearing as others.”
Additionally, Reid explained that Lestat doesn’t share “the same intention to tell his story as Louis has,” as he’s not trying to “unpack something that might be wound in his head incorrectly.”
On a final note, Reid acknowledged that not all fans of The Vampire Lestat will be satisfied with the adaptation, as it’s a “massive book” that won’t be recreated “page-by-page, line-by-line.”
“It’s not practical. Like the first two seasons, [the showrunner] pulls out the core themes, the feelings, the visuals, and the underlying concepts of the book,” said Reid. “You can still find those big scenes that you really want to see, but they’re in a slightly different context. I think that it’s really, really fun. Keeps everybody on their toes.”
Interview with the Vampire season three will also see the return of Jacob Anderson as Louis de Pointe du Lac and Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy. Additional cast members are yet to be announced.
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