The book inspirations behind “Interview with a Vampire”: The vampire couple Armand and Daniel

The final of Interview with the vampire Season two had quite a twist when a flash forward showed the audience that the vampire Armand (Assad Zaman) had turned reporter Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) into a vampire some time before or after he published his interviews with Louis and Armand as a book. We don’t know exactly how and when this happened. It seems to have been an act committed out of malice rather than love for Daniel. However, Armand’s transformation of Daniel into a vampire has its origins in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles novel series.

In the novels, Daniel Molloy doesn’t even have a real name until the third novel in Rice’s series. The Queen of the Damned. In the 1976 novel Interview with the vampire, The young reporter was simply referred to as “the boy.” At the end of the first novel, he ran off with Louis’ tapes in tow, hoping to find Lestat. In book two The Vampire Lestatwe learn that the boy had the recordings transcribed and published as a book. Interview with the vampire. A recently resurfaced Lestat found that his name and much of his life had been put on public display for mortals to see and passed off as fiction. But we didn’t find out what became of the young reporter until Rice’s third novel.

“The story of Daniel, the servant of the devil, or the boy from Interview with the vampire“ out of Queen of the Damned

In 1988 Queen of the DamnedWe learned that the anonymous boy went looking for Lestat after his fateful interview with Louis in San Francisco in 1973. We also now had a real name for him – Daniel Molloy. Lestat was asleep when Daniel searched, and he didn’t find the undead French aristocrat. Instead, the vampire Armand finds Daniel while searching for Lestat, at a time when Armand made New Orleans his home. No other vampires lived there, as Lestat had fallen asleep long ago. Armand had “cleansed” the city of all younger vampires. No one else dared call New Orleans their home at the time, as it was Armand’s territory.

When Armand searched Daniel’s mind after his encounter, he discovered that this young mortal knew his name and his true vampire nature and was intrigued. He began to stalk him and no matter what city or country Daniel fled to, Armand would find him. At first, he casually threatened to kill him if he ever published his book. Yet he let him live for his own pleasure. Then something unexpected happened. After years of playing cat and mouse, Armand actually began to love the mortal Daniel. Despite this, he constantly refused to give him the Dark Gift, no matter how much he begged.

Daniel, Armand and the Night Island

After many years of dating, Armand decided to become “rich beyond measure.” Using his knowledge of where old ships with treasures lay on the sea floor, he recruited Daniel, who now saw himself as “the devil’s lackey,” to help him get rich. And all while he slept during the day. With this fortune, Armand, using fake documents that Daniel helped him obtain, bought an island off the coast of Florida. Armand turned it into an entertainment and shopping paradise that only came to life after dark and was called The Night Island.

Armand and Daniel lived on the Night Island for years. Daniel had everything he wanted, the nicest clothes, the newest cars, everything except the one thing he wanted most – to become a vampire himself. However, when Daniel’s life was in danger, during one of his many escape attempts, the 500-year-old vampire finally gave him what he wanted and turned him. However, as Armand feared, turning Daniel into a vampire would only drive an even greater wedge between them.

Daniel and Armand in AMC’s Interview with the vampire

All we know from the AMC series is that at some point after Daniel tells Louis the truth about Armand and how he planned to have him and Claudia executed by his Paris coven, he turns Daniel into a vampire out of spite. But when did that happen? We don’t know yet. Did the two have a similar relationship to the one in the books? There doesn’t seem to be enough time for this intense love/hate relationship to play out off-screen. Unless there’s another twist in this story they want to throw at us.

We know from episode five of season two that Armand met Daniel in 1973 and interrupted Louis in the middle of almost killing Daniel. Not only did he meet him, but he almost killed him and erased his memories of the event. Still, he was obviously fascinated by Daniel, and it’s possible that the two had a relationship decades ago. One that Armand then erased from his memory. There is a miniseries announced by AMC called The night island. Could this series, at least in part, feature Armand and Daniel together? There are many ways this relationship could play out, and we are excited to see how Interview with the vampire will explore this fan-favorite relationship in the future.