I want to speak out as a devoted fan who's deeply impressed by Assad Zaman's acting, and as a reader of the entire Vampire Chronicles series by Anne Rice who adores the vampire Armand as a character, about the extremely strange situation surrounding the third season, "The Vampire Lestat."
I see many people trying to justify the erasure of Assad Zaman from the season's promotion by saying "he's not a main character," and I strongly disagree. I understand the series has already gone down the path of "reimagining the books" — they've changed the timeline, appearances, and backstories of the characters — but I will be unbelievably angry if they dare to change the DAMN PLOT OF THE BOOK.
If you read the books, you would never get the impression that the vampire Armand is a secondary character. He never was, not even from the very first book.
The vampire Armand appears in almost every single book, and almost everywhere he is the primary driver of the plot, a central character. The vampire Louis is the one who is absent from many books!
If we talk specifically about book "The Vampire Lestat", there is literally an entire chapter dedicated SOLELY to the vampire Armand. If Armand had never met Lestat, Lestat would never have met Marius, never would have awakened Akasha, and there would have been no apocalypse!
Armand is the engine of the plot. You cannot ignore that. You cannot write him off as a secondary character. In The Vampire Lestat, the secondary character is Louis! He gets literally two lines in that book.
Also, let's not ignore the relationship between Lestat and Armand. It was extremely toxic, but do not forget HOW IMPORTANT Armand was to Lestat — so much so that Akasha did not kill him. She literally told Lestat, "I will not kill only those who are DEAR to you." For that reason, she did not kill Armand, nor Daniel, who was dear to Armand. So does that not prove the colossal importance of this character?
If we follow the subsequent books, Armand literally settles all the vampires in his house, and they constantly hang out there. All gatherings and councils take place there, in ARMAND'S HOUSE. Armand even takes in Antoine (Lestat's vampire fledgling).
So yes, in my opinion — and I stand by it — Armand is one of the main characters of this universe. And what is happening right now with the season three promotion genuinely makes me extremely worried about changes to his storyline. The erasure of Assad Zaman is complete madness and blatant racism.
I've said my piece. You can throw stones at me, but I will only engage in dialogue with those who have read the books.