The world of Anne Rice continues to grow. At this year’s New York Comic Con, The Vampire Lestat — the third season of AMC’s critically acclaimed Interview with the Vampire — wasn’t the only story enthralling the crowd. Talamasca: The Secret Order, the newest chapter in the expanding Immortal Universe, took the convention by storm with executive producer Mark Johnson, showrunner and executive producer John Lee Hancock, and stars Nicholas Denton (Guy Anatole) and William Fichtner (Jasper).

They were joined on the Main Stage by Interview with the Vampire star Eric Bogosian (Daniel Molloy), showing us part of the crossover that binds the two series more closely than ever. With Talamasca premiering October 26th on AMC and AMC+, the panel and press conference revealed a series steeped in mystery, moral ambiguity, and the lingering question of what it means to be remembered.

The Watchers Step Into the Light

“The Talamasca has always been there,” said Hancock. “Anne Rice created this organization and peppered it with individuals throughout her books. They have their own separate history, but there was never a book about it.”

That absence, he explained, became his creative invitation. “I had a million questions: Did they hide in plain sight? What do their offices look like? How do they recruit? Do they have vacations? Do they have an HR department? I really wanted to ground them in the world and put them on the street.”

In Talamasca: The Secret Order, those questions are no longer theoretical. The shadowy observers who once lingered in the margins of Rice’s mythology are finally stepping into focus, caught between duty, secrecy, and the monstrous things they were meant to study.

Guy Anatole and Secrets

Nicholas Denton at NYCC 2025, taken by Kirsten Saylor for iHorror.

At the heart of the story is Guy Anatole, a man haunted by voices he’s spent his life trying to silence. “As a kid, he thought there was something mentally wrong with him,” Denton explained. “He hears voices. To combat this, he heavily medicated himself. But as he gets swept up into this mysterious world of the Talamasca, he quits taking the meds and learns that those were abilities that make him…special.”

For Denton, the role became an exercise in trust. “I guess what I learned about Guy is a lot about instinct and trusting your own. In other roles, I’ve played people who had a real guard in front of them. But with Guy, once that control mentality breaks, he has nothing else but to trust what’s inside him and go after it in a raw way. It feels real and easier to access. If you believe it, you can just go and do it.”

Jasper’s Code

While Guy’s journey begins in self-doubt, Jasper’s starts from a place of power. Played by William Fichtner, Jasper is a vampire — aloof, intelligent, and eerily restrained. “To my knowledge, there is nothing about a Jasper in previous Anne Rice writings,” Fichtner said. “So I kind of had a blank slate, which was lovely. I didn’t have to mirror something or reinterpret it. I could really walk where I wanted to go.”

That freedom gave Fichtner the chance to build Jasper from the ground up, a creature of precision and hidden motives. Hancock described the relationships in Talamasca as “negotiations in progress,” where no one’s intentions are ever fully known.

“It’s not just about fangs or blood,” Fichtner added. “He has a strong base for why he’s in the Mother House and part of all this. It’s believable, and it helps you walk around in this world with conviction.”

William Fichtner at NYCC 2025, taken by Kirsten Saylor for iHorror.

The Spy Game (But With Fangs)

One of the most surprising influences behind Talamasca wasn’t gothic horror; it was spy fiction.

“When I first started thinking about it,” Hancock said, “I thought, what if John le Carré wrote a novel with supernatural elements and vampires in it? So, from there, everything kind of fell in for me. And you know and then I watched the documentary on le Carré called The Pigeon Tunnel, which is great, by the way. And it talks about how you make a spy, and in some ways, I don’t know, the supernatural world and this spy genre of both have shadows and lies and secrets right at their core.”

Denton took that even further. “I actually met a spy as prep for this job,” he shared. “He taught me about how a spy interacts with the world — the psychology of it, how demanding it is. Although Guy is a reluctant spy, he learns fast. That sense of keeping your head strong, it’s something I carried into the role.”

The result? A show that plays like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by candlelight; espionage reimagined through a gothic lens.

Crossing Worlds and Universes

The Talamasca panel also teased the biggest Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe crossover yet. In the series, Guy confronts Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) at one of his Interview with the Vampire book signings after discovering his mother’s name printed in the pages. Daniel insists he didn’t put it there — the Talamasca did.

That revelation ignites a deeper mystery: Why is the Talamasca editing Daniel’s story? What do they want with Guy? Even in Rice’s ever-expanding universe, truth remains something carefully, and perhaps dangerously, curated.

Art, Immortality, and the Legacy of Anne Rice

When iHorror asked the panel if working on Talamasca had changed their views on immortality, and how art allows us to be remembered, their answers captured the show’s emotional core.

“Interview with the Vampire poses the question, ‘Do you want immortality?’” said Johnson. “Most people would say no, that it’s painful and lonely. It tells us to take the life you have and make the most of it.”

Fichtner smiled. “I think Jasper’s having a good time. But Mark’s right — it’s lonely. You get other things, but there’s always a give and take.”

Denton added a final note of reverence: “You make a good point about art and immortality and how sometimes you can be immortalized in certain things: celluloid, books, whatever.  I think that’s something to remember, especially about Anne Rice’s work. All of these stories exist forever and ever and ever, and to be able to capture that and to learn from it and to experience it…art is that blessing that we are given. I feel like a prophet. But there is something great about that.”

Monsters Reborn

Of course, it wouldn’t be Anne Rice without monsters. Hancock and Johnson confirmed that creature maestro Howard Berger, who designed the vampires for Interview with the Vampire and Mayfair Witches, returned to sculpt Talamasca’s creatures.

“Howard Berger designed all of the creatures,” Johnson said. “He did all of the vampires on Interview with the Vampire and also did all the work on Mayfair Witches. He did all of our [Talamasca] work and didn’t repeat himself. The mandate was, okay, we’ve had the vampires before, we’ve had Revenants or whatever, but we want our vampires.”

According to Denton, fans of the macabre won’t be disappointed. “For fans of monsters and whatnot, we had Howard Berger doing all our monster work work on this and all the creatures that are created are done by him and his amazing team. So you know that you’re in good hands when you’ve got Howard Berger in his team taking care of you.”

The Future of the Order

As for what’s next? Hancock didn’t hesitate. “A second season — fingers crossed.”

Whether that wish is granted remains to be seen. But after NYCC, one thing is certain: Talamasca: The Secret Order isn’t content to watch from the shadows. It’s stepping into the light, ready to redefine what the Immortal Universe can be, and what questions it still dares to ask.

Check out Talamasca: The Secret Order on AMC and AMC+ next week, beginning October 26th with a two-episode premiere.

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