AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe (ARIU? Yes? No?) is getting bigger. Talamasca: The Secret Order will be here before you know it with a sexy and very mysterious tale.
At the 2025 New York Comic-Con, The Mary Sue attended a press conference with reporters from various outlets where EP Mark Johnson, showrunner/creator John Lee Hancock, and actors Nicholas Denton and William Fichtner answered questions. We were also in the room at the Main Stage panel moderated by TV Guide’s Damien Holbrook, where Interview with the Vampire‘s Eric Bogosian joined the Talamasca gang for even more questions and some new content.
Described as a spy thriller, the third piece in the Anne Rice Immortal Universe on AMC that follows IWTV and Mayfair Witches, Talamasca: The Secret Order is about a secret organization. Its members have already appeared on both shows including Raglan James, Real Rashid, the vampire Sam on IWTV, as well as Polina and Ciprion on Mayfair. Does the Talamasca really just track and monitor supernatural affairs, as they claim? Or do they intervene?
In case you need to catch up, watch the trailer:
Justin Kirk as Raglan James, you will always be famous! Also, was that Jason Schwartzman as a vampire? Absolutely it was. The trailer for Talamasca: The Secret Order explains the premise, opening with the death of an agent. “We’ll need to replace her,” says McGovern’s character Helen. Enter Guy Anatole, played by Denton. He’s telepathic, fresh out of law school, and eager to learn about his past. The Talamasca recruits him to use his powers and aid in their investigations.
A new sneak peek shows our hero meeting Daniel Molloy.
Previous teases alluded to not only Bogosian and his character’s involvement in the show, but that Guy Anatole’s mother is mentioned in the titular book that Daniel Molloy published at the end of Interview with the Vampire Season 2. The crowd at NYCC got a first look at the full scene where they meet, which you can watch above. At the panel, Bogosian said that Daniel is just endeared by Guy’s charisma and power enough to help him and not eat him. “My nasty took a back seat,” he said.
In the scene, Guy confronts the vampire grump Daniel about page 227 of his book, and a name that sounds like “Anna Limas.” Daniel claims not to know anything more about her than what he was told, and later admits that he didn’t write that page. The Talamasca did. Guy also telepathically overhears Daniel think about something called “the 752″–an organization, perhaps?
The Talamasca is not only manipulating Guy, but has controlled what Daniel is allowed to publish. That will certainly affect the fallout in The Vampire Lestat, formerly known as Interview with the Vampire Season 3. Daniel also does not like that Guy uses his telepathy skills to read his mind. “I have a thing about people fishing around in my head without asking first,” he says. Given what happened recently, and not so recently, between him and Louis de Pointe du Lac and especially Armand, that’s not surprising!
Nicholas Denton prepared to be a spy… with a spy?
The Talamasca’s new initiate is an original character in this Anne Rice universe. He’s not from any of the books. So Denton was able to take a different approach. “I wanted to go the spy route with Guy,” he said at the press conference. (At both the press conference and the later panel, the showrunner Hancock said that one of his inspirations was British writer John le Carré, who wrote Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and other favorites in the genre including The Constant Gardener and The Night Manager.)
Denton, an Australian actor who previously appeared in the Starz series Dangerous Liasons, actually consulted with a real spy to learn how they move through the world and the emotional demands of the job. Even though Guy is a “reluctant spy” without “formal training” in Denton’s words, that experience proved to be valuable.
The show is going off book in the best way.
As you may have noticed by the number of original characters, the series is not based on a specific book in Anne Rice’s rich catalogue. The organization known as the Talamasca is peppered throughout the novels. “I looked at [this show] as an opportunity to hopefully fill that out with the questions that I had about the Talamasca when I read what Anne had written about it,” Hancock said at the press conference. “Do they hide in plain sight? What do their offices look like, these mother houses? Do they have a sign? Can you ring the bell and go in? How do they recruit? What do they pay? How are they funded? Do they have vacation? Do they have an HR Department? I mean, I had a million questions.”
The supporting cast may be playing against type.
William Fichtner, who you know from Heat and Prison Break, plays another original character named Jasper. The vampire is “having a good time,” according to the actor, but certainly as lonely as any immortal or any moral. Elizabeth McGovern is a mysterious Talamasca leader named Helen. You know her as the soothing Cora Crowley from Downton Abbey, or maybe from the melancholy film Ordinary People back in 1980. To play a character who is “prone to half truths,” according to Hancock, weaponizes that maternal presence. The boys on stage also praised the performances of Maisie Richardson-Sellers, who plays Olive, and Céline Buckens, who plays a witch named Doris. While the folks behind the Talamasca kept relatively mum about which creatures/monsters the show will introduce to the shared universe, we have to assume that this show gets spooky and freaky. Werewolves next… please??
(featured image: AMC)
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