Rowan Mayfair

And love and family history take center stage here.

The protagonist, Rowan Mayfair, is a brilliant neurosurgeon living in California, and she is completely detached from her family history.

She doesn't even know she belongs to a dynasty of witches.

Right.

Oh, that is terrifying.

And we experience this largely through Dr. Rowan Mayfair.

She is this highly competent, deeply lonely neurosurgeon out in California

Right, and she inherits the First Street house in New Orleans, and along with it, the massive Talamasca file

Exactly.

New Orleans is as much a character in Anne Rice's work as Lestat or Rowan Mayfair, but the show is relocating to Salem, Massachusetts.

A very different vibe.

Totally different.

Network executives often confuse world-building with storytelling.

Oh, that's a great distinction.

Audiences tuned into the Anne Rice universe for deeply specific, highly charismatic characters, Lestat, Louis, Rowan Mayfair, and their specific narratives.

They want the personalities.