Internet, meet your new Lestat. Sam Reid has joined the cast of AMC’s Interview With the Vampire series.

The show will adapt the novel of the same name by Anne Rice. Reid will play Lestat de Lioncourt, vampire sire and mentor to Louis de Pointe du Lac. The character was famously portrayed by Tom Cruise in the 1994 film adaptation.

And though only confirmed for Interview With the Vampire at the moment, Reid’s casting could spin off into quite a long-term deal with AMC. Though only Interview With the Vampire has been confirmed as a series in the works, AMC acquired the rights to all of Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles” novels. The character of Lestat appears in several of these stories. So, if AMC follows through with adapting more books, Reid could appear in those projects as well.

AMC greenlit Interview With the Vampire back in June. Breaking Bad’s Mark Johnson will executive produce the series, alongside Anne and Christopher Rice. Rolin Jones will serve as showrunner and writer.

“The challenge of adapting for television the groundbreaking and immensely compelling work of Anne Rice is both intimidating and exhilarating,” Johnson said. “Having previously produced films from such singular works, I recognize both the responsibility and the obligation we owe the material. I strongly believe that with AMC and Rolin Jones we are equipped to meet this challenge and to thrill and entertain both the loyal Anne Rice fan and the viewer who is just now discovering her work.”

Reid currently stars in the Australian drama series The Newsreader.

AMC plans for the eight-episode season of Interview With the Vampire to debut sometime in 2022.

Source: Variety