When it comes with keeping up with upcoming book adaptations, it can often be a double-edged sword to see a beloved book be translated into a different medium. In recent years, fans of Anne Rice books are getting fed thanks to AMC+’s Anne Rice Universe of TV shows being created, however, one common gripe with Mayfair Witches in particular is how different the show is from the source material. When CinemaBlend spoke to Jen Richards, who both plays Jojo on the show, and has been reading the Rice books for the longest time, she shared her own thoughts on the topic.
Ahead of the next season of Interview With A Vampire and the new Talamasca series coming to the 2025 TV schedule later this year, the second season of Mayfair Witches has been starting off the year with weekly episodes based on ’90s book series, The Mayfair Chronicles. Here’s what Jen Richards shared about her relationship with the books vs. TV show as a reader Anne Rice’s works herself:
I had to let go of what I loved about the books, and what I anticipated and then embrace what was working about the show and about those characters and their performances. And then, I got really excited for Season 2 ’cause I realized I can divorce the books now from the show. The show’s its own thing. I don’t know if you’ve read Lasher, the second book in the Mayfair Chronicles, but it’s basically unadaptable. There’s no way that you could do what they do in that book on screen in today’s age.
Yes, the latest season of Mayfair Witches is based on the 1993 novel, Lasher, but there are noticeable differences between it and the AMC series. When speaking about her experience as a fan on Mayfair Witches, Jen Richards spoke to how being on the show meant she had to let go of comparing the two mediums and realize they both have to be different. As she continued in our interview:
It’s just too dark and too twisted for contemporary TV audiences. And so, that opened up the door. It’s like, ‘Okay, so how do we take these themes that animate the book about women and power and legacy and fate; all these like really rich areas. What it means to give birth to a monster, what it means to be the daughter of a monster, what it means to be a trans character in a family where power is matrilineal and passed on from women. Like all these really interesting things that became like fun territory to play with.
While I haven’t read the books myself, when it comes to seeing the fandom interact online, I constantly hear them complaining about the changes made to the TV show. While I can totally understand that having had favorite books of mine adapted before poorly, when looking closely at the original plot of Lasher, I totally see Richards’ point. There seems to be a major plotline revolving around Lasher making it his mission to impregnate Rowan and other Mayfair women in a disturbing plotline rooted in inbreeding and abuse of women. (Hocus Pocus’ Thora Birch made a cameo as one of the Mayfairs who gets killed by Lasher, but in a tamer way than the books).
It certainly sounds like Mayfair Witches has the spirit of the plotline of Lasher under its belt, but is making a ton of creative liberties with its script. As Jen Richards shared, the series dives into some of the big themes of Lasher, but explores them in new ways. For Jojo Mayfair in particular, she gets to be a queer actor behind an LGBTQ+ TV character with the role. As she also said:
So for Season 2, I was mostly looking forward to just diving deeper, specifically into Jojo’s relationship to Rowan and to Cortland and the kind of the big betrayal that she felt at the end of Season 1 with Cortland, and how to navigate this person who she’s always adored in part because he was supportive of her in her transition, but now she sees like with clear eyes what he’s done.
It has been over 30 years since the Mayfair Chronicles was published, and it makes sense for the series to make some of these changes. Plus, if the show hadn’t made some changes, Jojo’s fan-favorite character wouldn’t get to be part of it!
While we wait for the next episode of Mayfair Witches coming up on Sunday, February 16, you can check out what the show’s star Alyssa Jirrels said about working with Alexandra Daddario and her thoughts on getting a moment with Lasher later on in the season here on CinemaBlend.