Let’s Go Bowling—The Vampire Molloy Makes an Exciting Entrance in TVL
“You’re a man now, boy”
It’s time to say the quiet part out loud.
From Pulitzer to penthouse, the transformation we’ve all been waiting for revealed itself fantastically in the new The Vampire Lestat trailer on Wednesday, April 20.
Simply put: I am excited to see The Vampire Molloy.
And if Eric Bogosian’s infectious and palpable excitement about Daniel’s story arc during last year’s press junkets wasn’t enough for you, just wait until you see him in his new form.
In the Anne Rice book The Queen of the Damned, Daniel is made a fledgling by Armand at the age of 32 to keep him from dying due to excessive and destructive drug use.
After his turning—with the ability to reinvent his life—Daniel was ready to embrace his new vampiric life. However, in AMC’s reimagining, nearly everything changes.
Daniel survives the initial interview with Louis and lives out a full life. Was it a life still riddled with drug use and pain that drove his family away and led to two divorces?
Yes.
But it was a life…right?
We are reintroduced to him on our screens some decades later in a second interview with Louis. But gone is the frightened and tearful boy we saw in Season 2 Episode 5.
Daniel is sharper.
Wiser.
Sober.
And ballsy.
Now sits a man who has lived enough life and heard enough lies in order sift through the charades to find the truth at any cost.
The aging up of this character, along with a “Devil may care” attitude as he accepts the second interview, shifts the original narrative into something exciting—vibrating in the backs of our minds as we ponder one thing:
Who is he now?
The similarities in book Daniel’s turning and series Daniel’s turning are rooted in Armand’s secondary motivation:
Saving the life of the man he’s loved in secret and in silence for half a century.
But there is where the similarities end.
In Eric, we find a smug, arrogant (deserved), and daring man who’s faced death so many times that his new awakening comes as a great boon in his otherwise inconsequential life.
In this is where the questions stir in the pit of my stomach, making me crave to see just the kind of vampire an older (but young) fledgling can be.
With the blood of an elder vampire running through his veins, Daniel simmers with a power that is an affront against The Great Laws. He also possesses a wisdom that neither Armand, Lestat, nor Louis possess given they were turned before having the opportunity to truly experience life as mortal men.
Mix that with his personality and propensity to dig and twist and take aim at your deepest shame, this becomes fertile ground for extraordinary Dark Gifts to bloom.
Can he fly?
Can he produce flames from nothing?
As a journalist, does he possess a natural primary affinity for the Mind Gift?
Or does something unknown, and far more powerful, lurk beneath—the likes of which even he will not be able to fathom…for now.
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While the audience craves the “Devil’s Minion” development between Armand and Daniel—and so does the cast—I’m left wondering just how far the writers will go when it comes to them finally facing one another after Armand’s rolling stone exit in Dubai.
Armand is surgical with the Mind Gift, possessing a level in the likes of that of an ancient witch and yet…
A human.
“The boy” carved through his mask like a flaming sword through pliant flesh.
Now, as a vampire, how much deeper will he go?
Final thoughts
A character that pushes every button, crosses every line, and says all the wrong things on purpose makes himself visible on our screens in a way we both despise and admire—and he’s just getting started.
The subtle glimpse of him in the halls helping Lestat in a vicious vampire attack only scratches the surface of who The Vampire Molloy has become.
And we want more of it.
The Vampire Lestat premieres Sunday, April 20, on AMC and AMC+ and will air at 9pm ET. Check out the trailer below.