With the grave-rattling occasions of Interview With a Vampire: Half II‘s massive finale, followers are lusting for extra intercourse, extra blood, and extra unreliable narrators. Fortunately for us, Season 3 has already been promised, with showrunner Rolin Jones assuring the collection would swap focus to Anne Rice’s sequel novel The Vampire Lestat. And which means Lestat de Lioncourt turns into a rock star.
Whereas the unique novel was set in 1985, the 12 months of its launch, the present has already pushed the Vampire Chronicles headline up significantly, from the 1700s to the early 1900s. So swapping from ’80s hair bands to the trendy music scene appears precisely the sort of problem Jones and his writers would relish. And if they will do it proper, they should embrace one factor: Chappell Roan.
Chappell Roan could be our favourite Brat Prince’s favourite artist.
Chappell Roan performs throughout Boston Calling 2024.
Credit score: Astrida Valigorsky / Getty Photographs
The sapphic singer-songwriter has been blowing up this 12 months, following her 2023 debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. After opening for Olivia Rodriguez on her Guts tour, Roan went from Tiny Desk Concert events to the already iconic Coachella efficiency, the place she declared herself “your favorite artist’s favorite artist” to a Bonnaroo look so hotly anticipated that they moved her to an even bigger stage. Roan’s breakout hit “Good Luck, Babe!” is climbing the Billboard charts, and has been broadly embraced on Tiktok — the place different jams like “Pink Pony Club” and “Red Wine Supernova” even have followers posting vids enthusiastically.
Whereas Roan’s rise appears meteoric, it wasn’t an in a single day success. The 26-year-old artist has been hustling since 17 to make her music breakthrough. She received dumped by one label, moved again in together with her mother and father, and was on the point of quitting altogether when issues lastly began clicking. You recognize who might relate to that? Lestat.
An aspiring actor whose starvation for the highlight earned him loads of ache, Lestat (Sam Reid) threw his coronary heart into one intense however failed romance into one other (Nicki. Armand. Louis…). Then, when he shook off the damage and self-loathing, he rose to channel all his emotions and experiences right into a blistering album.
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Sam Reid as Lestat De Lioncourt on “Interview with the Vampire.”
Credit score: Larry Horricks / AMC
Roan’s personal The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess tells a narrative of rocky self-discovery, sexual exaltation, bitter break-ups, and the pleasure of watching your ex endure. It is simple to think about Reid’s 2024 model of Lestat connecting to her model of Darkish Pop, bringing his snarling French accent to “Good Luck, Babe!”s damning refrain, concentrating on it at Louis (Jacob Anderson) and his devious boyfriend Armand (Assad Zaman):
“When you wake up next to him in the middle of the night
With your head in your hands, you’re nothing more than his wife
And when you think about me, all of those years ago
You’re standing face to face with “I informed you so”
You know I hate to say, “I informed you so”
You know I hate to say, but, I told you so”
And but, that trial ep of Interview with the Vampire Season 2 has me considering Lestat additionally has his “My Kink Is Karma” moments.
Queer rock stars ought to stick collectively.
Roan’s songs are unabashedly about lesbian intercourse. Her style influences, pancake make-up, and stage persona are influenced by drag queens she admires. Roan has native queens open for her on tour and she informed a terrified Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Present that her headline-grabbing Coachella line was impressed by Sasha Colby’s “I’m your favorite drag queen’s favorite drag queen.” She’s additionally being embraced by queer rock legends, like Elton John, who just lately shared an Instagram snap of the 2 after an evening of pizza and tea spilling.
So, if we’re to consider that Lestat is turning into a rock god on this second, on this queer pop explosion of Renee Rapp, Billie Eilish, and (positive) Jojo Siwa, he’d not solely know Roan, he’d make rattling positive they shared air with essentially the most theatrical unhealthy bitch on the scene.
To this point the collection hasn’t delved into cameos. So how would possibly this work with out feeling like stunt casting? Maybe as an alternative of Lestat being impressed to show to music by a grubby New Orleans punk band practising close to his crypt, it might be listening to Roan taking part in at a close-by present. Perhaps Lestat — with a variation of his Theatre des Vampires stage make-up — might open for her, connecting him with a crowd that may relish his signature outrageousness and attract. It is simple to think about the pair having a second backstage collectively, each glamorous and chaotic visions of queer need and messy romance. Perhaps they might be on a chat present sofa collectively, parodying the Fallon look, the place Roan was each inch the queer rock star making the stodgy straight host really feel uncomfortably out-of-touch.
Look, we’ll go away it to Rolin Jones to roll out the main points. However one factor is obvious, to have Interview with the Vampire: Half III actually rock, it wants some Roan.
Interview with the Vampire is now streaming on AMC+.
