AMC Turns Anne Rice’s Talamasca Into a Spy Thriller — Premieres Oct. 26
AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe grows again this October with Talamasca: The Secret Order, a new series that follows a secret society that has monitored immortals for more than a thousand years. The show is created and led by John Lee Hancock, produced within the same universe as Interview with the Vampire and Mayfair Witches, and premieres on AMC and AMC Plus on October 26, with new episodes releasing weekly on Sundays.
What the Talamasca is
The Talamasca is a secret society from Anne Rice’s novels that studies and monitors supernatural beings. It does not have its own standalone novels; instead, it appears across Rice’s works such as The Queen of the Damned (1988) and The Witching Hour (1990).
Talamasca: The Secret Order builds a TV series out of those references rather than adapting a single book. Executive producer Tom Williams collected Talamasca references from Rice’s novels and shared them with John Lee Hancock to shape the series’ foundation.
Series setup and tone
John Lee Hancock developed the show at the request of executive producer Mark Johnson. The series is set primarily in London and is structured more like a spy drama than a gothic romance.
Hancock said, “Anybody else, I probably would have said, ‘No it doesn’t sound like me,’ but because it was coming from Mark and knowing the success he and AMC had with the other shows, I said, ‘Send me what you have on Talamasca,’”
Hancock also described how he approached the Talamasca as an organization and the kinds of questions he asked while developing the show: “What’s their salary?” he recalls asking “How do they recruit? Does everybody have a gift? Are they in buildings that are clearly marked? Do they have a 401(k)? Do they have an HR department?”
The central viewpoint is a new agent who discovers the group’s inner workings. That character is Guy Anatole, a young lawyer with a mind-reading ability who is recruited to investigate corruption inside the Talamasca’s London motherhouse. “He’s Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz,” Hancock says. “He didn’t think this world existed, and then here comes a tornado and he’s along the Yellow Brick Road.”
Cast and characters
The series stars Nicholas Denton as Guy Anatole. Other principal cast members include:
- Jason Schwartzman as Burton, a vampire in London who works with the Talamasca and sold out his coven.
- William Fichtner as Jasper, a vampire who provides candid perspective on the Talamasca’s dangers.
- Justin Kirk and Eric Bogosian appear in cameo roles reprising characters from other Immortal Universe shows: Raglan James and Daniel Molloy, respectively.
Hancock said of the Talamasca’s world: “I love the idea that you can’t trust anyone.”
Executive producer Mark Johnson added context on the vampires’ tastes: “Vampires as we describe them don’t have many pleasures in this world. They can’t eat, they can’t drink, they don’t really smoke. There’s very little they enjoy, but they do enjoy good music.”
Crossovers and future plans
The three shows in AMC’s Immortal Universe — Interview with the Vampire, Mayfair Witches, and Talamasca — share a continuity and coordinate plots. Writing teams work together to place characters and plan legitimate reasons for cross-show appearances.
“We’ve been very careful and deliberate about that,” Johnson says.
AMC is developing additional Anne Rice projects, including a series called Night Island, based on a vampire resort from The Queen of the Damned, and an adaptation of Rice’s novel Memnoch the Devil. Johnson said, “[We’re] being very careful, I’d like to think judicious, about what we do next and don’t want to saturate the Anne Rice world.”
Release details
Talamasca: The Secret Order premieres on October 26 on AMC and AMC Plus. Episodes will continue to arrive weekly on Sundays.
