Anne Rice
Immortal Universe

A unique, iconoclastic universe

When AMC Networks acquired eighteen Anne Rice novels, they began developing multiple concurrent TV series starting with Interview with the Vampire and Mayfair Witches. But the world of Anne Rice doesn't work on the same principles of other franchises. With books spanning forty years, full of contradictions and shifting protagonists, from an author who prioritized passion, immediacy, and evolving obsessions over continuity, the task of translating these beloved stories into a modern connected franchise was enormous.

My job was to build a map, to provide the producers with a guide to everything contained in the vast, sprawling corpus. That meant understanding not just the stories, but the fandom, the lore debates, and the emotional stakes for lifelong readers who had been waiting decades to see these characters on screen.

Mapping a sprawling franchise

I created a vast, comprehensive internal database for network and studio producers that contained guides to the entire combined Vampire Chronicles/Mayfair Witches world. If printed as a book, it would be over eight hundred pages long and over three-hundred thousand words. This franchise bible covered the storylines, characters, lore, locations, and timelines across all eighteen books, highlighting the continuities and contradictions and charting recurring themes. It also explored franchise strategies, comparing and contrasting with other large media franchise universes, unearthing historical fan reactions and controversies, and contained a master timeline charting how Rice's vampires, witches, and immortal spirits interacted with all of recorded human history.

Beyond documentation, I advised producers and network executives on how to handle lore, manage fan expectations, and navigate the particular sensitivity around adapting an IP with an intensely loyal, encyclopedically knowledgeable fanbase. I also developed a slate of multiplatform tie-in projects, including the forthcoming companion digital series "The Night Island."

Navigating fifty years of complicated canon

Anne Rice spent decades writing interconnected novels set in overlapping fictional universes — books she returned to, revised, and sometimes contradicted. The first challenge was figuring out which version of the canon was "official" and which elements were in play for the TV adaptations to reinterpret.

The second challenge was the fandom. Anne Rice readers are deeply invested and deeply knowledgeable — they have encyclopedic recall for details from books published in 1976 and strong opinions about every casting and creative choice. The franchise bible had to give productions enough latitude to tell great stories while giving the audience enough of what they loved to feel honored, not abandoned.

I also developed a multiplatform content strategy — including a companion digital series — designed to bring the broader Immortal Universe to life beyond the two main shows, extending the world for fans who wanted more.

A universe with room to grow

Interview with the Vampire has become one of the network's most acclaimed prestige dramas and a fandom sensation. Mayfair Witches launched successfully, shortly followed by a third series, The Talamasca. The multiplatform content strategy — including the digital series "The Night Island" — remains in active development, and the Immortal Universe is still expanding. This is the work I find most interesting in franchise IP: figuring out how to preserve what fans love while helping creators find the room to do something new with it.