the elephant in the room with the official tvl/s3 trailer is the way it obscures both the show's black leads and the fundamental queerness of its characters and premise. if you were watching this trailer as a casual fan of the first 2 seasons, you'd prob assume it was a lestat spinoff instead of a direct sequel and that louis was only making a few cameos to pass the lead baton- if you were watching this trailer as a potential viewer who didn't know anything about the first 2 seasons or the source material, you'd have no idea that the show's main narrative centers on a gay, interracial gothic romance. and this doesn't change my hopes and expectations for s3 itself- writers don't cut trailers and they don't dictate promo campaigns- but i think it's telling wrt amc's priorities as a corporation, the "new" audience it's pursuing for s3 and the reactionary political/media climate we're in in the states rn that a lot of people could watch this trailer and decide to tune into s3 completely oblivious to lestat's bisexuality and the fact that the monstrosity he's talking about- the actions he's in deep denial about and is probably gonna face the worst reckoning for- is the way he treated his black husband and daughter. the "well louis' plot and claudia's presence are big spoilers, so they had to hide them" explanation only goes so far, bc while it does make sense to avoid spoiling the audience, adding a few more split-second frames of louis and claudia's faces wasn't exactly gonna give away the game when they've already released delainey in ghostly makeup, louis covered in blood going after bruce etc. if anything hinting at louis and claudia having some rich story coming up would help retain the audience iwtv already has, including the large number of black viewers who got invested in this show thru louis and claudia's story in s1-s2.
i've also seen some posts talk about how the lestat/gabriella kiss is "rent-lowering shots" or how the depiction of lioncourt incest is gonna be a deeply controversial or alienating story choice, and i feel like that's a take that speaks to fandom discourse instead of the general audience reality. we literally live in a world where game of thrones is one of the most popular global ips and house of the dragon is one of the most popular shows on tv. "incestuous white aristocrats" is a way less controversial premise for a lot of casual viewers than anything centering blackness or queerness, especially black queerness- there are plenty of conservatives who ate up the lannister and targaryen drama in the game of thrones universe who'd react with palpable disgust if you showed them the s1ep1 church kiss, or who'd hate on jacob and delainey's casting as "blackwashing" and "woke dei" and other euphemisms they use for the hard r. and i'm not knocking the existence of the lestat/gabriella plot or the show going there or a lot of fans' excitement for it- there's a lot of great story and character potential there, the cycles be cyling, i'm really interested in it too- but i do think it's telling that amc felt more comfortable showing lestat kissing his own mother in the official trailer than lestat kissing a man, let alone kissing his black husband.
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