Call to Action - Reporting Anti-Blackness in The Vampire Lestat (2026)
I'm not tagging this as "tvlcritical" because this issue goes beyond audience or critic opinions of AMC's The Vampire Lestat (TVL) also known as Season 3 of Interview with the Vampire. This isn’t a difference of character perspective, tone, “immoral characters”, “gothic fiction”—the writing in the "Montreal" episode is blatant hatred for Black people.
What happened?
The episode titled "Montreal" aired on Sunday, July 12, 2026 with Kevin Hanna and Ryan Kattner credited as writers; the rest of the writer's room consists of Rolin Jones, Hannah Moscovitch, Jonathan Ceniceroz, Anusree Roy, and Daniel Hart. There are zero Black writers on TVL.
3x06 is violently and proudly anti-Black, full stop. The language written and greenlit by AMC was racist, full stop. The Black actors—Jacob Anderson, Delainey Hayles, and Sarah Afful—are not responsible for the script written by a non-Black writer's room. These actors work in a deeply anti-Black industry and have to navigate the ever-present threat of being fired and/or blacklisted for any "flaw" in their performance and conduct on set/in promotional materials or events.
There is zero excuse or justification for the anti-Black language used in TVL to date. We cannot allow this hatred to be met with silence.
What can I do?
Report this episode to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Hollywood Bureau which specializes in anti-Blackness in television and film. Important details to include is the writers, episode release date, and the racist material in question. All of this information is available under the cut.
Emails to the NAACP should be addressed as "ATTENTION: Report, Hollywood Bureau" and sent to [email protected]
Emails to AMC can be sent to three TVL-specific Public Relations contacts:
The choice is yours, but I will personally be copying the AMC contacts on my email to the NAACP. This is a serious matter and it needs to be treated as such.
Many thanks to @dulacloverboy for pulling contact info together for the NAACP and AMC <3
AMC Network’s “The Vampire Lestat” (2026) episode titled “Montreal” aired on Sunday, July 12, 2026.
Credited writers are Kevin Hanna and Ryan Kattner. There are zero Black writers on staff for "The Vampire Lestat".
The "Montreal" episode included the following language:
00:44:24 - "'Cause there's a little etching on your ribcage says you're a 'slave'."
00:45:10 - "Get this into your nappy little head."
00:46:08 - "How I ginned up the train for the slave, here."
00:47:27 - "The one good thing in my bleak, Black life."
the issue with growing up in the 2000s and 2010s was like there was this really big push toward "accepting your weirdness" overall but they meant like idk wearing mismatched socks or something not being tangibly beyond the norm in any way shape or form
apparently youre supposed to perform. they love it when you perform. but it has to be authentic. they hate it when it's not authentic. but you have to perform.
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