It’s Friday afternoon, the sun is already high and hot here at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, the very antithesis of vampirism, and yet we’re all here, crammed into Hall H for a panel for everyone’s favorite vampiric Oedipus Rex, The Vampire Lestat!
Except, there’s a bit of a problem. They’ve brought out on stage Jacob Anderson (Louis), Eric Bogosian (Daniel Molloy), Assad Zaman (Armand), even Jennifer Ehle (Gabrielle), and Sheila Atim (Akasha), but there’s no Lestat. No Sam Reid. Apparently the man is off acting in a stage play in another country, ironically playing a priest. And while that’s great for Reid, it truly is, the anticipatory energy of the entire room lessened after those onstage had to make the sad, ironic, announcement that no, Sam Reid would not be there at all. A clip shown of the one night show Reid did, billed as The Vampire Lestat One Night Only – LIVE, an exclusive concert event at New York’s Beacon Theater on June 2nd, 2026, to celebrate the shows premiere on AMC, while making Reid look extra scrumptious as Lestat as it always did, just seemed to make things worse. We’re here for The Vampire Lestat, and there is no vampire Lestat.
Well, we just have to soldier on. The season finale of The Vampire Lestat had just dropped the previous week, and it was a real head-banger, all the puns intended. Jacob Anderson had to laughingly expound about a green screen shirt situation he endured to make the final episode, and how many of the scenes involving Louis’ body and head separately had to be shot twice.
Asked his favorite moment about this current season of the Anne Rice-endorsed show, Eric Bogosian laughed and declared the scene where Lestat can’t pronounce the name of the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, as the best bit.
Sheila Atim talked about her understandable nervousness stepping into the role of Akasha, Vampire Queen, how she paced and practiced her iconic speech in her hotel room after being given all of one days’ warning for the shoot. And how Atim realized her character was laying down on the table for at least part of it, and so she did the same but on her hotel bed, and it helped bring her into the characters’ mindset. The scene of Akashas awakening and shrieking rebirth rant was acknowledged by the entire panel as an accumulation of everyones’ brilliant work. Atim laughingly admitted, “We did it all in one take, did one more take for safety, and that was it!” And finally, how after Sheila finished her iconic Akasha speech on set, there was stunned silence set-wide and then everyone, every last worker, actor, and hanger-on, applauded fiercely.
Asked about the strange, Vampirics Anonymous-like journey his character had taken this season, Assad Zaman, who plays Armand, talked about the “childish” quality Armand is meant to have from the Anne Rice books, and how he didn’t quite see it that way, rather an “alien” quality of his own interpretation, that he tried to bring that out for this season especially.
Asked what his favorite set-piece of this new season was, Jacob Anderson grinned and related a story about a painting of a gold leaf peacock shooting pink laser beams from its eyes, which was in Lestats apartment for the shoot, but now resides in Andersons’ own living room, because yes, he took it.
It’s a bit hard to fathom, but the actors of this fine show are already well on their way to shooting Season 4 of the on-going Anne Rice-inspired vampiric TV show, but here we are. And the panel was ended with a tiny teaser to that effect, informing all of us that, yes, Season 4 has been officially named, Queen of the Damned!
Written by Alicia Glass