AMC has wrapped up the seven-episode first season run of “Interview With the Vampire” with a Mardi Gras massacre that marks the halfway point in the book’s narrative and goodbye to New Orleans as Louis (Jacob Anderson) and Claudia (Bailey Bass) head to Europe.

Series creator Rolin Jones confirms to Variety that the series has spread the entirety of Anne Rice’s iconic 1976 novel across fifteen episodes. The remaining eight will be the show’s second season which has already been ordered by AMC.

Just as the first season changed up a few elements, so will the new season with the changes being made to bring the story more in-line with the latter books in Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series – specifically “The Vampire Lestat,” “The Queen of the Damned” and “The Vampire Armand”. Jones says:

“Going forward, we are going to do things that are wildly loyal, and really try to squeeze out every beautiful piece of prose in that second half of the book – and we are going to do some other things the book didn’t do, mostly based on where the books go from here. Books 2, 3 and 6 really inform all the decisions we made in Season 1, and a lot of the decisions we are making in Season 2.”

One such change is due to the shift in the time period of the first season. That means the second season will unfold at a different point in history – specifically, Louis and Claudia arrive in Eastern Europe in the grip of World War II.

However, it will also stay loyal to the book with a shift away from Lestat and towards Armand, who has a major part to play. That character was revealed in the show’s first season finale and was previously portrayed by Antonio Banderas in the 1994 Neil Jordan film adaptation.

Jones says the show owes audiences answers to who the five centuries old Armand is, a vampire who can walk in the sun and fly. Jones promises: “That story is owed, and it’s one we will tell”.

Anderson says the most intriguing question for him with the second season is what influence Armand has had on Louis between his time with Lestat and the present-day interview sessions with Eric Bogosian’s almost Anthony Bourdain-inspired take on Daniel Molloy.

The full first season of “Interview with the Vampire” is now available on the AMC+ service. The series has pulled in rave reviews with a 99% from all critics and 95% from Top Critics on Rotten Tomatoes.