“Interview With the Vampire ”film“ ”director says Tom Cruise 'didn't want to reprise' role in potential sequel

"At the time he wasn't doing sequels."

Avert your eyes, fanged friends: Interview With the Vampire director Neil Jordan is shedding some light on why there was never a sequel to the 1994 film.

Jordan spoke with Variety about his experience making the film adaptation of Anne Rice’s beloved gothic horror novel in honor of its 30th anniversary on Monday, recounting memories from set and why — despite its box office success and plenty of source material to draw from — a sequel never came to fruition.

“I was asked to write a script of The Vampire Lestat, which I did. And quite simply, Tom [Cruise] didn’t want to reprise the role,” Jordan told the outlet. “It was as simple as that.”

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Related: Interview With the Vampire cast: Where are they now?

While he noted that the film “would’ve been quite a different animal” to its predecessor, Jordan maintained that Warner Bros. likely would’ve gotten greenlit the project if Cruise, who played Lestat de Lioncourt, had been game to sink his teeth into a sequel.

“If Mr. Cruise had said he would do it, I’m sure they would’ve done it,” he said. “But at the time he wasn’t doing sequels.”

A rep for Cruise did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly’s request for comment.

The 1994 film, which featured a screenplay written by Rice herself, followed Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt), who claims to be a vampire turned by Lestat de Lioncourt (Cruise), as he tells his life story to a reporter named Daniel Molloy (Christian Slater). The star-studded project rounded out its cast with performances by a young Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Banderas, and Thandiwe Newton.

Jordan’s revelation comes after Slater noted in an interview with Comicbook.com earlier this year that both he and Cruise were surprised that a sequel never came together. After all, the film earned over $220 million at the box office.

“Tom Cruise and I were both surprised that Interview With a Vampire didn’t get a sequel. That would have been fun,” Slater said in April. “I mean, he did bite me at the end of that thing.”

Related: Interview With the Vampire showrunner and Sam Reid tease season 3 after that emotional finale (exclusive)

A technical sequel to the film titled Queen of the Damned was released in 2002, however none of the original cast reprised their roles in the project, with Lestat being played instead by Stuart Townsend.

In the years since, AMC has developed its own television adaptation of the novel that has released two seasons. Speaking with EW in 2022, the show’s executive producer Mark Johnson explained that he believed their version to be “truer to the book” than the film.

"Interview With the Vampire is above all else a really beautiful love story," he said at the time. "As a result, as opposed to the movie, the series is less plot-driven and more emotional, more character-driven."