new Order

THE ANNE RICE IMMORTAL UNIVERSE EXPANDS WITH NEW LORE IN Talamasca: the secret order. SFX VISITS THE SET IN MANCHESTER

- DARREN SCOTT

MONDAY MORNING, AND YOUR intrepid SFX reporter is hunched in front of a bottle of lube in a Soho strip bar. It’s all in the line of duty, of course.

It's November 2024 and we find ourselves behind the beaded curtain of the very dated Cupid’s Error — actually on a studio backlot in Manchester, where AMC has recreated not only a club, but an entire London street.

But nothing is as it really seems with their new chapter in Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe. Talamasca: The Secret Order is, it turns out, actually a spy show — albeit one with vampires, witches and more.

Creator, writer, director and producer John Lee Hancock explains he was approached by Mark Johnson (Interview With The Vampire, Mayfair Witches) who asked if he was a fan of Anne Rice, and if he had heard of the Talamasca.

“He said, ‘There’s no book on it, but here are some mentions that Anne Rice gave it. It seemed to me like a blank slate that you could come up with stuff that you want to do’, which was kind of exciting to me. I said, ‘Well, it’s vampires and witches and that’s great, but it’s not normally what I do. They'll probably never go for it, but I'd like to do a CIA/MI6 spy show. John le Carré, but we have to have some vampires and stuff in there, then that'll be cool.”

He laughs. “I'm very surprised. I kept expecting him to go, ‘Oh, that’s not what we’re looking for.”

VAMPIRE LEGACY

Hancock says he approached it personally. “I'm a person who is not big into the supernatural. I’m not the person who's already purchased the ticket into the vampire tent. I just felt that a grounded person, who does not believe in those things, would be a fun entree and tour guide for others.”