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The Mandalorian & Grogu is now just about a month away, and the hype is starting for real. Director and Mando creator Jon Favreau was on Jimmy Kimmel Live! recently to promote the upcoming Star Wars adventure, and shared the very first clip. It shows Din Djarin in a high-speed chase, with a prisoner in tow. And with him is Zeb from Star Wars Rebels, who looks to have a substantial role in the film. Little Grogu is on the Razor Crest, (goodbye, N1-Starfighter), and he’s trying to help his bounty huntin’ daddy. But let’s just say, he’s having a hard time following directions. You can watch the first The Mandalorian & Grogu clip below:

First clip from ‘THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU’.

In theaters on May 22. pic.twitter.com/3LnRP4PTIc

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) April 22, 2026

In the scene, Mando is driving away in a speeder. And it kind of looks like a blue version of Luke’s Tatooine landspeeder from A New Hope. They are being shot at by some bad guys, with Zeb in the backseat, shooting blaster fire right back. Mando tries to get Grogu to help from the Razor Crest. But it seems his training on what the control panels mean has fallen on deaf ears. I mean, he’s just a baby, what did he expect? This scene is very reminiscent of the scene with Baby Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I guess cute alien babies trying to figure out instructions in life-or-death situations is never going to not be funny.

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THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU’s New Trailer and Opening Sequence Are BrilliantLucasfilm

We’re not sure what planet they’re on, but the terrain looks like we might be on Nevarro again. That’s where Mando and his wee charge decided to make a home at the end of season three of The Mandalorian. But really, it could be anywhere in the galaxy. It seems the galaxy far, far away has no shortage of these dry, arid worlds. We’ll find out where they are when The Mandalorian & Grogu arrives in theaters on May 22.

The post First MANDALORIAN & GROGU Clip Shows REBELS’ Zeb in Action appeared first on Nerdist.

Samara Weaving and Jason Segel take the phrase “till death do us part” to the extreme in Jorma Taccone’s violent dark comedy, Over Your Dead Body. Between movies like Ready or Not Here I Come and They Will Kill You, fun slasher-adjacent comedies seem to be all the rage right now. Although these types of films might not be the most cinematic or reflective in the grand scheme of things, they offer a solid hour and a half for audiences to just sit back and have fun. Which is exactly what they’re meant to do. I am one who tends to appreciate that. Over You Dead Body carries a very similar tone; It’s funny, bitingly gory, and a good time overall. Independent Film Company

Over Your Dead Body is an intense and hyperviolent ride. Seriously, it is very bloody. It’s chock-full of sarcastic one-liners, most of which land pretty well. That is largely attributed to Weaving and Segel’s killer delivery. I found the movie very similar to They Will Kill You in terms of its tone and energy. It is both comedic and thrilling. While there were parts I didn’t love about it, Over Your Dead Body definitely works well for what it’s supposed to be.

Segel and Weaving play the unhappily married couple Dan and Lisa. Dan is a fallen film director who now directs commercials. Lisa is a stage actress looking for her big break. Once happy and in love, the pair now harbor a strong detestation toward one another. Several reasons are to blame for their marriage going sour. On one hand, Dan made some poor spending decisions that landed both of them in heaps of debt. On the other, Lisa drifted a little too close to one of her male coworkers.

To thwart their marital issues, Dan and Lisa decide to take a quiet getaway in a remote cabin belonging to Dan’s father. What better form of couple’s therapy is there than a romantic retreat in the woods? I’m gonna go with not killing your life partner. Unbeknownst to Dan and Lisa, both of them went on the trip fully intending to murder the other. Their sinister plots quickly unravel, leading to an awkward yet hilarious confrontation with Dan duct taped to a chair. Things get even more chaotic when a crude trio of fugitives (Juliette Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, and Keith Jardine) crash the party. A whirlwind of violence and action ensues, forcing Dan and Lisa to table their problems to take on the unwelcome intruders.

Independent Film Company

The dynamic between Weaving and Segel is very entertaining. Weaving is an overly sarcastic, disaffected actress, while Segel is her grumpy, mismatched partner. They play the part of a resentful couple quite well. Hearing Weaving deliver her lines in her thick, authentic Aussie accent made it that much better.

While I found the movie enjoyable, there were still parts I didn’t love. For instance, the “prison fight” scene felt a tad unnecessary and stretched on for way too long. I get that Lewis, Olyphant, and Jardine are supposed to be the bad guys and all, but the uncomfy sequence felt tonally out of place. Honestly, Allegra and Pete’s entire relationship made me slightly uncomfortable. That’s not to say that their violent antics weren’t entertaining.

What works well for this movie is its creative use of gore, which is heaps more than I was anticipating going into the theater. The movie carries copious amounts of blood loss and severed body parts, which is perfect for a dark comedy thriller of its nature. Despite the extreme violence, Over Your Dead Body somehow manages to maintain a relatively lighthearted and comedic tone throughout.

Independent Film Company

For a fun, violent action/comedy, Over Your Dead Body definitely hits the mark. Thanks to Segel and Weaving’s killer performances as the married couple from hell, the film is as quick-witted as it is gory. Though not without its flaws, it is a bloody good time.

Over Your Dead Body ⭐ (3.5 of 5)

The post OVER YOUR DEAD BODY Delivers Murderous Good Fun (Review) appeared first on Nerdist.

When Avengers: Endgame returns to theaters this September, it’s going to feature new-new footage that ties it to Doomsday. Marvel isn’t inserting deleted or extended scenes that it left on the cutting room floor in 2019. Co-director Joe Russo revealed the film will feature recently shot sequences “set in” Avengers: Doomsday‘s story. He’s excited by this “unique” opportunity to create a “bridge” between his films. I’m sure he his. Just as I’m sure there are some MCU fans who feel the same way. I’m just not not one of them, because this whole thing just feels hollow.Marvel Studios

I’m very much aware of this thing called “money.” I understand the financial reasons why Disney would want to re-release Avengers: Endgame with entirely new footage that promotes its next big-budget event film, Avengers: Doomsday. I simply don’t care about any of that. Budgets and box office totals are concerns for accountants. Besides, even if this is nothing more than a cash grab, people can either spend their money on this or not. Where I might be a little naive is that I don’t think this is entirely about selling tickets. I believe Marvel Studios has artistic and creative reasons for releasing this altered Endgame. As a fan I definitely care about those and their implications for the medium at large. And the artistic and creative reasons are exactly why this endeavor feels empty, desperate, and exhausting. Absolutely exhausting, in fact.

Even some fans excited by this new Doomsday–Endgame might not enjoy the feeling they “have” to see a movie they already know intimately. This is especially tiresome because it’s essentially an even more ludicrous form of pop culture “homework.” Following cinematic universes is already massively time-consuming under normal circumstance. The concept/burden of needing to know a lot of old stuff to appreciate something new has become so prevalent (and in many cases tedious and frustrating) artists now promote new entries by touting the lack of previous information necessary to enjoy them.

Marvel Studios

Instead of making Doomsday easier to watch and enjoy on its own merits, the MCU is going the other way with this Endgame alteration. It’s doing something Star Wars fans have come to hate with good reason, only much worse. This isn’t just replacing Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen as Anakin’s ghost. This is like if Disney shot all new scenes while filming The Force Awakens and then put them in Return of the Jedi, an idea so upsetting it would have lead to actual riots outside of Lucasfilm. (Seriously, if you thought you were angry when Han shot first, imagine if teenage Jar Jar stopped and asked, “Why hesa shootsa poor Greedsees?”)

Now, Disney might not think this is an issue with the MCU specifically because that franchise’s fans have proven they’re huge nerds who freaking love homework. It’s actually a big reason for the franchise’s massive success during its first decade. I know I didn’t mind my MCU homework. Like many others, I rewatched every single film ahead of Avengers: Infinity War. It was great! I loved it! And it paid off. The more homework you did before Avengers: Endgame, the more that the movie rewarded you. Oh, you thought you could skip rewatching Thor: The Dark World? TOO BAD FOR YOU. But for as much as Endgame rewarded the most dedicated MCU fans, that movie was also the final exam after a decade of studying!

Marvel Studios

Endgame was the test we all passed to graduate from Infinity Saga University. Now, for reasons we’ll get to, Marvel is telling us we have to go back and retake that three-hour-long test if we want to get our Maste…..okay I’ve stretched this school analogy longer than Reed Richards, but you get the point. This isn’t fun. This feels less like an exciting new way to watch an old movie and more like having to clock back in at our old job. Avengers: Doomsday is supposed to serve as (the beginning of) the end for Phases 4-6, the MCU’s Multiversal Saga. Any prep/rewatches needed to enhance this new experience should be limited to films and shows from this era. Memories of the Infinity Saga should be enough.

Instead, the Russos are doing their own Time Heist and forcing us to go with them and pay for a ticket to do so. (In fairness, we don’t yet know if this altered Avengers: Endgame will arrive on Disney+ before Doomsday premieres. If it does, that will certainly help.) And all of this is just to see new footage that serves an entirely different film. This new footage getting jammed into an already completed work of art only exists to serve as a “bridge” to a film coming out seven years later. It’s….I’m just so tired.

Marvel Studios

We know why the Russos and Marvel Studios might want/think they need that bridge. Agree with it or not, there is an artistic reason for doing this: fixing a big problem. The post-Infinity Saga MCU hasn’t exactly been the smooth narrative machine of the Infinity Saga. It all but abandoned the serialization format it used to build it into a global behemoth. Despite some great individual installments, too many characters and stories have come and gone without feeling important or making an impact. The unthinkable has also happened. You can skip entire shows or movies without feeling like you missed out. No one ever felt that way before Infinity War or Endgame.

Part of that approach was noble, as Marvel tried telling new stories using formats that broke out of an aging model. Part of that approach was not, as Disney forced Marvel to feed Disney+. But at this point, on the verge of Avengers: Doomsday, the reasons don’t matter. The only thing that matters is that it’s hard to even remember who the Multiverse Saga characters even are. I don’t even know if Shang-Chi will remember he’s a superhero when he finally returns to the MCU after five freaking years.

Marvel Studios

The unfocused, meandering post Thanos MCU also hasn’t “done the work” to earn this latest Avengers movie. Doomsday and its titular villain feel rushed because the whole Multiversal War Saga is undercooked. Part of that, obviously, has to do with the fact Disney course corrected after firing Jonathan Majors and shifting from Kang to Doom as its big bad. But that’s one reason of many. Not many viewers were thrilled with Kang’s development or the state of the franchise. But at least Kang was already part of the franchise. This is the entirety of Doom’s involvement in the MCU right now.

Marvel Studios

The fact that Marvel and the Russos built this “bridge” is a tacit admission that Phases 4, 5, and 6 lacked cohesion and narrative focus. So they’re trying to imbue it by retroactively placing it in Avengers: Endgame. They’re putting this undercooked phase in the microwave and serving it up as part of a meal they know you loved. The idea is clearly to give Avengers: Doomsday more narrative weight and importance in the franchise through its new “connection” with Avengers: Endgame.

It doesn’t work that way. Even if it’s done well, even if it’s executed in an interesting, creative, compelling way, you can’t microwave a gourmet meal, which is what Endgame was for fans. It was a gourmet meal for diehards, a fitting, rewarding end that came after a decade of careful preparation. Marvel Studios and the Russos are desperate to serve up that kind of experience again, but it’s impossible at this point. Avengers: Doomsday is going to succeed or fail on its own. The movie is either going to overcome the lack of build, or it isn’t, and no “bridge” is going to change that.

It’s desperation, in the same way the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Victor von Doom was. It’s an attempt to recapture old glory without earning it. This is, under the best circumstances, an artistic endeavor undertaken solely to retroactively fix issues. And it’s being done in the worst way, by changing a completed work of art. None of this is “unique” or exciting. It’s just all so hollow.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He is better at movie homework than he was actual homework. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post Altering AVENGERS: ENDGAME with New DOOMSDAY Footage Feels Hollow appeared first on Nerdist.

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Amid a slew of Super-related movies in DC Studios’ slate, with both Supergirl and Man of Tomorrow following on from last year’s Superman, we have one of the more atypical projects from a comic book movie. That is Clayface, the body horror film which will serve as an origin story for one of Batman’s many monster villains. With a script by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini (Drive) and direction from James Watkins (Eden Lake), the movie has a pretty good pedigree. Footage from it also did pretty well at the recent CinemaCon 2026. Now, with the teaser trailer, we can finally see just how scary this comic book horror really is.

The teaser is much more of a mood piece than a story trailer. And what a mood that is! Using a haunting, nigh-acapella version of the Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize??” we spend much of the teaser looking at the badly scarred and bloodied face of Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) as it cuts to various clips of what we can assume happened before and after this. What gave him the Mouthwashing look?

Well, we know from the basic premise that Hagen was a dashing heartthrob actor whose face became horribly disfigured following a brutal attack. Believing his career (and life) are over, Hagen agrees to take part in an experimental drug trial which makes his flesh ultra malleable. He can look like a star again. However, as we see, the stability of his new, some might say, “clay face” is tenuous and he begins to sag and drip.

#ClayfaceMovie only in theaters October 23. pic.twitter.com/CwgZFYQSXK

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) April 22, 2026

This is right out of the superb two-part Batman: The Animated Series episode, “Feat of Clay.” I’d wondered how much of Clayface’s monstrous form we’d get. While we don’t see him hulking, we do have a couple of shots of Matt casting a shadow onto a building where he forms his arm into a giant mace. Again, this is straight out of BTAS. I’m thrilled we’re getting a horror movie within the DCU. Gotham City is home to dozens of the scariest villains in comics. Why no give all (or most of them) their own horror origin movie? Mister Freeze, Man-Bat, hell, even Poison Ivy.

Now, what we don’t and won’t know for a while is whether the Caped Crusader appears at all in Clayface. Maybe Commissioner Gordon or other prominent GCPD people, or some other of Batman’s rogues. The mind reels.

Warner Bros./DC Studios

Clayface will hit theaters October 23. Dang it, six whole months!

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

This post has affiliate links, which means we may earn advertising money if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, we just have to give you the heads up for legal reasons. Click away!

The post The CLAYFACE Teaser Is Legitimately Scary appeared first on Nerdist.

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Dungeon Crawler Carl is coming to life in a television series! This news sparked joy among fans of the books who are looking forward to the next installment of this adventure later this year. If you’re one of them and wanting to get your next LitRPG fix, then you’re in luck. LitRPG, while fairly new to the traditional publishing industry, is a long-established genre with thousands of books to its name. There are many different directions to go when you begin your exploration of more books like Dungeon Crawler Carl, but we recommend these seven books specifically.

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DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL TV Series Officially Happening at Peacock He Who Fights With Monsters (He Who Fights With Monsters #1) Aethon Books

If you enjoyed Dungeon Crawler Carl, the next series on your list should be He Who Fights With Monsters. This list is in no particular order, except for this one—He Who Fights With Monsters is definitely #1. Jason Asano is an unremarkable middle-manager at an office supply store, but his life is turned upside down when he wakes up in a new world, naked (and hairless?) as the day he was born. Jason faces everything from hamsters to cannibal cultists as he fails upwards, towards adventure, glory, and a decent character build. Hopefully.

He Who Fights with Monsters has a tone similar to Dungeon Crawler Carl. But Jason is his own man. The humor is substantially cleaner, and he lacks some of Carl’s grit, subbed out for an adorable and relatable ‘aw shucks’ness. Grab your “I WENT TO A MAGICAL ALTERNATE UNIVERSE AND ALL I GOT WAS VAST COSMIC POWER” shirts and your star-studded cloaks, because Jason and company are eleven books into their grand quest. AND there’s a cat! Though Gary is a bit bigger than Donut…

Something (Full Murderhobo #1) Mountaindale Press

In the world of Full Murderhobo, once you gain your class, you are tossed in a time dilation portal to train for a decade in your chosen class, by an expert (or experts) of said class. This is due to the Royal Decree. At seventeen, all teens must be tested for something called “potential.” Andre, Taylor, and Zed all test high—their fourth, Luke, barely ranks. Still, they’re all sent to train and given mentors.

Except Luke. Luke gets no mentors, and instead he gets forty years in Murder World. Follow him as he does the only thing he really can do: go full murderhobo. 

There is a sense of humor in this series, but it also handles its serious moments quite well. While the title is a joke of sorts (a reference to a ‘murderhobo’ style of D&D player, basically they just kill everyone they come in contact with, possibly including their own party), there’s plenty of dark and bloody action to go around in this trilogy’s introduction.

Catharsis (Awaken: Online #1) Amazon Digital Services

Now we head more in the direction of sci-fi and the near future, with a large helping of fantasy splattered over everything—an excellent combination for a LitRPG! Awaken: Online has been praised for its frenetic pace and knife’s edge suspense that keeps readers coming back for more. For twelve volumes, in fact!

Jason (another one!) is an isolated, bullied young man who finds his escape in video games. In the year 2076, a new VR game—the first of its kind—hits the market, and Jason may have found his greatest escape of all.

Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension #1) Andrew Rowe

If you like your LitRPGs to focus heavily on a unique magic system, and then exploit and manipulate that system to the point of breaking it (but not quite), then you’ll like the Arcane Ascension series. Sufficiently Advanced Magic mixes standard LitRPG tropes with some of my favorite magic school tropes to form a vivid, almost anime-like world. It feels somewhere between Final Fantasy and HunterxHunter.

The book follows Corin Cadence of House Cadence, and his attempt to learn magic so that he may follow in the footsteps of his brother Tristan, who was lost to the Serpent Spire five years prior. Lost—but not confirmed to be dead. Corin makes it his mission to conquer the towering dungeon and find his older brother, no matter the cost. 

Cat Core (Cat Core #1) Dean Henegar

Imagine the most faux-Christian, judgmental, insufferable, Southern old lady you’ve ever met. Now imagine she has one redeeming quality: she loves cats. Maybe she loves them too much, considering there is eighteen of them. That’s a decent picture of Ms. Florence Valentine, a cat-lady and widow in her 80s. Florence dies in the opening pages of Cat Core, and is reconstituted in the ‘afterlife’ as a dungeon core, a magic floating gem that controls the realm of their dungeon, typically using mana. 

‘Dungeoncore’ is a distinct subgenre of LitRPGs. Rather than following an adventurer, they focus on the dungeons themselves. If you’re a fan of sapient places, this is the perfect flavor of LitRPG for you. Florence, assisted by her alien preceptor ‘Doug’, begins to construct her dungeon. Doug quickly realizes that Florence will not listen to him no matter what he says, as she spends all of her mana on remaking her old furniture and creating new kitties for her dungeon. But don’t worry folks—these kitties can kill. And, more importantly, these kitties can respawn. 

Mage Tank (Mage Tank #1) Aethon Books

Would you like to remain dead, or respawn?

1. Life sucks, let me die.
2. Respawn

Many readers who start with Dungeon Crawler Carl will find their way next to Mage Tank, a series chronicling the second life of Arlo. A bike accident sends our protag straight to the afterlife where he can choose to fade into oblivion, or respawn in a new “zone.” Being a protagonist, Arlo of course chooses to respawn and shenanigans ensue. This one has a very similar sense of humor and tone as DCC—Arlo mentions dicks in the first few paragraphs. You’ll feel right at home in this potty-mouthed slow-burn progression fantasy. 

 Ritualist (The Completionist Chronicles, Book #1) Mountaindale Press

And rounding out the list, we have another series written by the ever-prolific Dakota Krout. The Completionist Chronicles follow the tale of Joe, an ex-chopper medic who was paralyzed in the line of duty. Once rendered a quadriplegic, Joe chooses to have his consciousness uploaded into a hyper advanced video game. While his character isn’t what he would have picked for himself, he soon discovers a secret class, The Ritualist. It has the potential to make or break his second chance at life. 

It doesn’t reach the depths of sadness of Dungeon Crawler Carl, but compels in a similar way. Just ignore the weird opening with Elon Musk, and you should have a chill, good time with this read.

Where Can I Find LitRPG Stories Like Dungeon Crawler Carl?

There’s a LitRPG out there for everyone. If you’d like to explore everything the genre has to offer, there’s no place better to start than Royal Road, where many of the now-famous LitRPG authors got their start. And, with the genre gaining more traction than ever in the wake of Dungeon Crawler Carl, keep an eye on the shelves of your local bookstore. You never know what adventure might be just right around the corner.

This post has affiliate links, which means we may earn advertising money if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, we just have to give you the heads up for legal reasons. Click away!

The post 7 LitRPGs to Read If You Loved DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL appeared first on Nerdist.

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AMC’s upcoming adaptation of The Vampire Lestat will adapt Anne Rice’s second novel in her Vampire Chronicles series, with Sam Reid returning as the titular vamp, now a rock star. Joining him is actress Jennifer Ehle as his mother, Gabriella, a vampire herself. In Rice’s 1985 novel, she goes by Gabrielle, but the show’s producers decided to go with the Italian pronunciation, as the character was born in Italy. The character is a fan-favorite, although some racy scenes between Mama Gabriella and her son Lestat in recent The Vampire Lestat trailers have raised some eyebrows. But this problematic relationship actually has its origins in Rice’s books, even if the Interview with the Vampire TV series may be taking things a step further. Join us as we explore the complex bond between Gabriella and Lestat, whether it’s incestual, and all the other complicated nuances of turning your mother into a vampire.AMCDo Lestat and His Mother Gabrielle Have an Incestuous Relationship?

In Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles novels, Lestat’s relationship with his mother is complex. And that’s putting it mildly. While many have read an incestuous vibe between the undead pair, that is not literally the truth of Gabrielle and Lestat’s relationship in the books. And that’s for the simple reason that in Rice’s vampire mythology, her undead don’t have sexual intercourse. In Rice’s world, the blood exchange replaces food as sustenance, replaces drugs as hallucinogens, and replaces sex as pleasure (and procreation). So when Lestat and Gabrielle exchange blood in Interview with the Vampire‘s world, there’s an erotic charge in the text, but it’s not sex in the literal sense.

Alfred A. Knopf/Innovation Comics

Having said that, AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe does not adhere to Rice’s rules in this way. The vampires in the series do have sex in human fashion, and are particularly horny in fact. One scene in the trailer for The Vampire Lestat shows Gabriella definitely touching her son, in an area where a mother should never touch her adult child. But this is clearly after she’s become a vampire. So does human morality even apply to them anymore? After all, is it any worse than, say, murdering people every night?

To recap, Lestat and Gabrielle have not been officially incestuous in the world of The Vampire Chronicles yet, although their relationship is blurry. But the series may be about to change all of that. Despite the lack of incest, though, Lestat and his mother plainly have always had a very complicated bond, going back to their human days.

The Mortal (and Miserable) Life of Gabrielle de Lioncourt

We are introduced to Gabrielle via the perspective of her son, Lestat. The Vampire Lestat explains how he was born Lestat de Lioncourt, the son of a country lord in the Auvergne in France. Although his father had a large and ancient estate, he’d run out of money years prior. A boorish man, he married a young girl named Gabrielle from Italy, hoping the dowry would help replenish his wealth. In The Vampire Lestat, we learn that Gabrielle was miserable in her life in the castle and hated her cruel husband. She bore him several children, only three of whom lived to adulthood. She had nothing but disdain for her eldest sons, who took after their awful father. But Gabrielle had a special place in her heart for her youngest, Lestat, who was sensitive and smart, and loved the arts.

AMC

When Lestat was 21, around the year 1780, his mother became ill with consumption. Knowing she was dying, she gave him her precious jewels and told him to sell them. She then told him to use the money to run away from home with his lover, Nicolas, and pursue his dream of acting in Paris. Although he was reluctant to leave his dying mother, it was her final wish that he escape and be happy. What Gabrielle didn’t count on was Lestat becoming a vampire while living in Paris.

How Lestat’s Mother Became a Vampire in The Vampire LestatAMC

When Gabrielle knew the end was near, she decided to make one last trip before she died. She went to Paris, hoping to say farewell to her son in person. Lestat was a vampire now and revealed his true nature to his mother. He had never made another vampire before, but asked her on her deathbed if she was willing to become his fledgling. Knowing she would die otherwise, Gabrielle eagerly said yes, and Lestat became the vampiric father to his human mother. Who, in a way, was now his daughter. Vampire family trees are complicated things, folks!

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Gabrielle’s personality shifted almost instantly. Where Lestat only hunted evil doers (most of the time) Gabrielle killed anyone she wanted, with little moral compunction. As she saw it, as a vampire,  she was higher on the food chain. She also began dressing as a man and wearing her long hair in a braid. She always felt powerless as a woman while mortal, uncomfortable in her own body, especially as the laws of the time required her to be subservient to men. And in particular, her cruel husband. Gabrielle, who insisted Lestat call her that name from now on, as “Mother” seemed inappropriate, also had little interest in the human world.

Gabrielle Becomes a Cold and Deadly Immortal

In The Vampire Lestat, Gabrielle constantly talked about hunting bears and other animals in the forest, and simply disconnecting from human life and returning to nature. Lestat, in contrast, remained very connected to humanity. He loved human art, and music, loved performing on stage for humans. He had no interest in living in a forest or jungle. When the ancient Vampire Armand blew up their lives in Paris, Lestat and Gabrielle left and wandered Europe and parts of Egypt for a decade. But even from the start of their journey, Gabrielle would vanish for weeks and months at a time. Although Gabrielle still loved Lestat, their bond was breaking. Things came to a head when Lestat learned she kept the news of their mortal family’s deaths from him, and he told her to leave him for good.

How Lestat and Gabrielle Reunite after 200 YearsAMC

Lestat would lose all contact with Gabrielle for almost two centuries. When he became a rock star in the 1980s, Gabrielle learned her sire/son was alive and well. When Lestat threw his big Halloween Night concert in 1985, the vampire community attacked the show, and Lestat and Louis had to escape. Gabrielle then pulled up in a sports car and rescued her son/father and his lover from the undead mob. Gabrielle tells Lestat that she imagined their reunion a hundred different ways over the centuries. And she never thought it would involve her saving him from a vampire gang at a rock concert.

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After the events of book three, The Queen of the Damned, the surviving vampires form a coven on the luxurious Night Island, belonging to Armand, off the coast of Florida. But as she was known to do, Gabrielle quickly grew restless and wandered off into the world again. Gabrielle would pop in and out of Lestat’s life, making cameos in Rice’s subsequent novels. But she never had a book of her own, and Anne Rice said she never wanted to write one. She said Gabrielle was too cold for her to ever write from her perspective. But as of Rice’s final novel, Blood Communion, Gabrielle and Lestat were on good terms, promising never to go no-contact again.

Anne Rice’s Tragic Inspirations for the Vampire Gabrielle, Lestat’s Mother

Anne Rice went on record several times saying that her characters helped her work through her own personal tragedies. Her daughter Michelle’s death from leukemia at age 6 inspired her to create the child vampire Claudia in Interview with the Vampire. And Rice was at least partially working through the death of her mother with the creation of Lestat’s mother, Gabrielle. Rice’s mother, Katherine O’Brien, was ahead of her time, and named Anne “Howard” when she was born, not believing in gender specific naming conventions. But her mother also suffered from alcoholism and died from its complications at age 42, when Anne was only 15. Lestat saving his Gabrielle’s life and giving her a new one was Rice using writing to fictionalize saving her own unconventional mother via supernatural means.

Is the Vampire Gabrielle a Trans Character?AMC

Fans have often cited Gabrielle as being extremely trans-coded. In The Vampire Lestat, she often lamented being forced to endure the trappings of being a woman, especially as an 18th-century woman. When she becomes a vampire, she dresses in masculine clothing and often passes as a man in a crowd. However, she never changes her pronouns, and Lestat always refers to her as “she.” But were she created today, it’s very possible Anne Rice would have written Gabrielle as a trans man. Perhaps we will see the series pick up these threads to weave a beautiful, representative story.

Gabrielle Becomes Gabriella in AMC’s The Vampire Lestat

We haven’t seen much of actress Jennifer Ehle as Gabrielle, now using the Italian pronunciation of her name, Gabriella, in The Vampire Lestat footage we’ve seen so far. We’ve seen her in the 18th-century flashbacks in period costumes, and some scenes of her at Lestat’s concerts in the modern day. Gabriella seemingly presents as female in the modern day, but looks can be deceiving. She may very well identify as a trans man post-vampirism. And we hope so.

She’s also definitely is doing something naughty with Lestat in a couple scenes from the trailers… including full on kissing him.

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This suggests the producers are taking any incestuous subtext of the novel, and just making it text between mother/child Gabriella and child/father Lestat. We’ll have to wait and see how Gabriella is presented when The Vampire Lestat debuts on AMC this summer.

Interview with the Vampire seasons one and two are now streaming on AMC+.

Originally published March 4, 2026.

The post IWTV: Lestat’s Complex (Icky?) Bond with Mother Gabrielle, Explained appeared first on Nerdist.

The AI Overviews will offer instant summaries pulled from across multiple emails.

The finale of Interview with the Vampire season two had quite the twist, as a flash forward showed the audience that the Vampire Armand (Assad Zaman) had turned the reporter Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) into a vampire, some time before or after published his interviews with Louis and Armand as a book. We don’t know exactly how and when this happened. It seems to be an act committed more out of spite towards Daniel than love. However, Armand making Daniel a vampire on Interview with the Vampire does have its origins in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series of novels.AMC

In the novels, Daniel Molloy doesn’t even have a proper name until the third novel in Rice’s series, The Queen of the Damned. In the 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire, the young reporter was simply referred to as “the Boy.” At the end of that first novel, he ran off, with Louis’ tapes in tow, hoping to find Lestat. In book two, The Vampire Lestat, we find out that the boy had the recordings transcribed and published as the book Interview with the Vampire. A recently reemerged Lestat discovered that his name and much of his life was put on public display for mortals, passed off as fiction. Yet we never learned what became of the young reporter until Rice’s third novel.

“The Story of Daniel, the Devil’s Minion, or the Boy from Interview with the Vampire“ from Queen of the Damned

In 1988’s Queen of the Damned, we learned in Part 1, Chapter 4, a chapter called “The Story of Daniel, the Devil’s Minion, or the Boy from Interview with the Vampire” that the anonymous boy went searching for Lestat after his fateful interview with Louis in San Francisco in 1973. We also now had a proper name for him—Daniel Molloy. Lestat was slumbering at the time of Daniel’s search, and he didn’t find the undead French aristocrat. Instead, the Vampire Armand finds Daniel while he searches for Lestat, during a time when Armand made New Orleans his home. No other vampires lived there, as Lestat had long ago gone to sleep. Armand had “cleaned out” the city of any younger vampires. No one else dared to call New Orleans home at this time, as it was Armand’s territory.

AMC

Scanning Daniel’s thoughts upon encountering him, Armand discovered this young mortal boy knew his name, and his true vampiric nature, and became fascinated. He began stalking him, and no matter what city or country Daniel ran to, Armand would find him. At first, he casually threatened to kill him if he ever published his book. Yet he continued to allow him to live for his own amusement. Then something unexpected happened. After years of cat and mouse, Armand came to actually love the mortal Daniel. Even so, he constantly refused to give him the Dark Gift, no matter how much he begged.

Daniel, Armand, and the Night Island

Many years into their relationship, Armand decided to become “incalculably wealthy.” Using his knowledge of where old ships with treasure lay at the bottom of the ocean, he recruited Daniel, who now saw himself as “the Devil’s Minion,” to help him procure wealth. All while he was asleep during the day. With this fortune, Armand, with forged documents Daniel helped him create, purchased an island off the coast of Florida. Armand turned it into an entertainment and shopping paradise that came alive only after dark called The Night Island.

Armand and Daniel lived at Night Island for years in the Vampire Chronicles. Daniel had everything he wanted from Armand, the finest clothes, the newest cars, all except the one thing he wanted most—to become a vampire himself. However, when Daniel’s life was in danger, on one of the many instances when he would run away from Armand, the 500-year-old vampire gave him what he wanted at last, and turned him. As Armand feared, however, making Daniel a vampire would only serve to drive a bigger wedge between them.

Daniel and Armand in AMC’s Interview with the Vampire AMC

All we know from the AMC Interview with the Vampire series is that sometime after Daniel reveals to Louis the truth about Armand, and how he planned to let his Paris coven execute him along with Claudia, he turns Daniel into a vampire out of spite. (Or so Louis says.) But when did this happen? We don’t know yet. Do Interview with the Vampire‘s Daniel and Armand engage in a relationship similar to the one they had in the books? There doesn’t seem enough time for that intense love/hate relationship to have happened offscreen. Unless there is one further wrinkle to Daniel and Armand’s story that Interview with the Vampire is waiting to spring on us.

We know from episode five of season two of the series, that Armand encountered Daniel back in 1973, interrupting Louis almost killing Daniel. Not only encountered him, but very nearly killed him, and erased his memories of the event. Yet he clearly had a fascination with Daniel, and Interview with the Vampire leaves space for the possibility that the pair had a relationship decades ago. One that Armand then wiped from Daniel’s mind. After all, there is a limited series AMC announced called The Night Island. Could this series, at least in part, involve Interview with the Vampire‘s Armand and Daniel and their relationship?

AMC+

For now, all we know is that when asked to describe what lives between Armand and Daniel, Eric Bogosian, who plays Daniel Molloy shared, “I feel that Armand’s love for Daniel is like when a kid has a stuffed animal, and he drags it around with him for like years until it has one button, and a hole for an eye. And he loves that little stuffed animal. So, it’s as romantic as that can be.” Well, we’ll take it!

There are lots of ways this story could go for Daniel and Armand, and we’re eager to see how Interview with the Vampire tackles this fan-favorite pairing going forward.

Originally published July 1, 2024.

The post The Book Inspirations Behind the Armand/Daniel Vampiric Pairing in INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (And What ‘Devil’s Minion’ Really Means) appeared first on Nerdist.

Few cartoon families are quite as iconic as the Simpsons. We’ve laughed at their jokes for decades and followed along for every chaotic adventure. Announced just in time for World Simpsons Day on April 19, the famous family will soon star in their very own art exhibition for the first time. The Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University announced that “The Art of the Simpsons” opens later this year. The unique exhibition features original illustrations of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and other iconic Springfield regulars. It opens on November 18, 2026 as part of the museum’s 10th Anniversary celebration. Hilbert Museum Collection

The Simpsons are about as memorable as they come. The long-running show has gifted us with countless hilarious moments and even has a reputation of predicting the future. Celebrating 39 years of The Simpsons, the “The Art of the Simpsons” showcases original illustrations and production cels of the many iconic characters created by Matt Groening and drawn by Fox Television Animation animators.

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Pictured above is one of the original illustrations featured in the exhibition. It shows Homer and Marge screaming side by side, no doubt caused by whatever hectic happenings are going down in Spingfield. The collection places the famous TV family under a different lens, letting fans experience The Simpsons like never before.

The Hilbert Museum in Orange County, California specializes in California narrative art. The Hilbert Collection boasts a vast selection of original animation and movie art holdings, including works created for Disney, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Sesame Street, and others. The museum is open five days a week and free for all visitors.

Hilbert Museum Collection

The Simpsons first aired on December 17, 1989. The series celebrated its 800th episode in February of this year. With no end in sight, The Simpsons might very well outlive us all.

The post THE SIMPSONS to Star in Their Own Art Exhibition This Fall appeared first on Nerdist.

The Vampire Lestat has thousands of fans, but he wants MILLIONS, no, BILLIONS of them. And you know what, if this trailer for The Vampire Lestat is any indication, he is about to GET his wish. We have to say this: The Vampire Lestat trailer might be the best one we’ve seen all year. If Interview with the Vampire was a slowly unfurling, operatic play of the highest degree, then The Vampire Lestat is all explosive intensity, pure emotion, and unadulterated FUN. This is the kind of trailer and series that fans who have been in fandom a LONG time can only dream of. Full camp, full queer, full tangled mess of relationships. It scratches every itch, claws them with vampiric nails. Get ready to bow to your new god and check out The Vampire Lestat‘s trailer below.

It’s incredible how well AMC’s Immortal Universe has captured the difference in kind between the stories of Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat. Because, looking back on this trailer vs. having just rewatched a whole lot of Interview with the Vampire, I am struck by the same exact juxtaposition I was when I first read both novels. Interview with the Vampire is beautiful and melancholy; dense and full of ennui. The Vampire Lestat is no less angsty, but it has SPEED. Lestat is moving, he’s rocking and rolling, he’s taking over the world, and he’s doing it to a catchy beat.

AMC+

As we said, this The Vampire Lestat trailer has it ALL, not the least of which is Armand, in all his beautiful, big-eyed glory, in a scene with Daniel. And the crowd (ArmanDaniel/Devil’s Minion defenders) goes WILD.

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Of course, we can FEEL the tension between Lestat and Louis in every turn of this The Vampire Lestat trailer. We want them to just figure it out and be happy. But let’s be real, we wouldn’t trade the dramatic blow-outs and single blood tears for ANYTHING.

AMC+AMC+

We also were rocking out to Lestat’s (Sam Reid) rendition of Billy Idol’s song, “Dancing With Myself.” So far, we’ve loved every single one of Lestat’s original hits. But a cover song here and there soothes the soul. And this one is SO GOOD.

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A release shared with the trailer notes, “The wild and captivating next chapter in Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe follows Lestat as the world’s first immortal rock star on an electric multi-city tour, while he’s haunted by “muses” from his rebellious past.” In addition to Sam Reid, The Vampire Lestat stars Jacob Anderson, Assad Zaman, Eric Bogosian, Delainey Hayles and, Jennifer Ehle and is executive produced by award-winning producer Mark Johnson, creator, writer and showrunner Rolin Jones, Hannah Moscovitch, along with Christopher Rice and the late Anne Rice. 

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The Vampire Lestat premieres Sunday, June 7 at 9pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. Interview with the Vampire seasons one and two are now streaming on AMC+.

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