On Thursday at New York Comic Con, the upcoming AMC series Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches took over the main stage for a never-before-seen preview. Filmed in the atmospheric city of New Orleans, the show is based on author Anne Rice's books Lives of the Mayfair Witches and takes place in the same universe as her Interview With the Vampire. The cast and executive producers took the audience behind the scenes to chat about the making of the romantic dark fantasy, set to debut in early 2023, and the haunted mansion setting of its central mystery.

The panel began with the series' first trailer, as shown below:

Executive producers Mark Johnson, Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford came onstage along with Alexandra Daddario, who plays Rowan Fielding, Tongayi Chirisa, who plays Ciprien Reed, Harry Hamlin, who plays Cortland Mayfair, and Jack Huston, who plays the mysterious Lasher.

Daddario began, "The idea of the character being a neurosurgeon, and a bit of a mess at the same time, and also discovering that she has this family and that she's a witch -- it's incredibly complex and I think quite relatable."

Huston said that the greatest challenge in portraying Lasher was staying true to Anne Rice, but also making him real. "But luckily, we've got such an amazing team who just really wanted to explore and go deep into these characters. Let's make it dark, let's make it sexy, let's make it true to Rice -- who is not a bad person to stay true to!"

Chirisa was asked about playing Ciprien as multiple characters fused together. "He's tasked with looking out for Rowan and trying to discover, who's Rowan, what's going on in her life, and how does that connect to Lasher?"

None of the actors on the stage had read the books before being cast in the show, but Spalding said that it was exciting to bring the vibe of the books into New Orleans while they were shooting.

"We were very excited about the fact that it's a great family story," said Ashford. "Probably everybody on this stage knows what it feels like to be part of a crazy family. So the witches' story just added a fantastical magical layer on that."

Daddario mentioned that there were a couple of practical witches on set, which was different from what was portrayed on the show. "At the end of the day, it's about a girl who's finding her way and is lost, and I can relate to that. Knowing about witchcraft or about the book didn't affect my acting stuff."

Asked to elaborate on real-world witchcraft, Daddario said, "It's a beautiful religion. I didn't learn too much about it, but I understand it's about love."

"With Lasher, it's described as a dark fantasy," said Huston. "I found a lot of love in the character, what his relationship is with these women, with these witches who own him. We're trying to figure out new ways of something belonging to you, and empowerment."

Hamlin said that his key prop was a pinkie ring. "Each day when I put that on, I knew who Cortland Mayfair was."

"It was his mandate to know the history of the Mayfair family," said Chirisa about Ciprien.

The moderator asked how much the disparate Anne Rice series would intersect. "It's an interesting question, because all the shows are so different," Johnson. "But everyone is a human being. Their issues are our issues." He explained that characters might show up in a different capacity than they did in the books.

The cast and crew discussed what it was like filming in New Orleans. "We started Interview With the Vampire at the beginning of the year, and it was the same in Mayfair Witches: Everyone had some kind of connection to Anne Rice, even if they'd never read the books," said Johnson.

Daddario said that she appreciated the culture, with "a lot of people who really take care of each other," and "there's good food."

"There is a house on 1st Street that Anne Rice wrote the book in," said Spalding. Although the house that they shot in wasn't the same building, it was in the same neighborhood and some members of the crew had a history with it. They also claimed that it was haunted.

Spalding continued, "You'll notice when you're watching that the aspect ratio is different from other shows, because we thought this aspect ratio would work better in New Orleans."

The panelists were asked if they felt any kind of New Orleans supernatural energy while they were on set. "Once, the thunderclaps came in at just the right time," said Hamlin. "It was amazing!" Daddario related another story about a thunderstorm fitting well into filming, saying, "That was kind of magical to me."

Fans were asked to line up to ask their questions for the panel's Q&A session. One question was about the show's CGI and whether it was a struggle for the actors. Daddario responded, "I am very lucky that I started young, when I was 21 I booked a movie, Percy Jackson, so I got a crash course in it. So I'm able to handle it without getting out of my head, but it can be very challenging to act against a green screen. But it's just practice, like anything."

Hamlin followed up by saying, "If I'm not mistaken, Percy Jackson was based on Perseus, as in the movie Clash of the Titans," getting a round of applause from the audience.

"It really was amazing how open everybody was to the ideas," said Huston. "Everybody understands that it's a team, and a collaboration. There was never an idea that was shot down. It's such a rare thing on a show or a movie that you're able to be part of the creation of your character."

"You helped work out a grammar, visually, within the camera, so that we didn't have to [use] CGI," Spalding said to Huston.

The next question was from a cosplayer dressed as Madisynn from She-Hulk, who acted out the character as she spoke, making the panelists remark that there should be a She-Hulk crossover.

"I read a lot of Anne Rice interviews," revealed Daddario after being asked about how to adapt "Anne Rice's genius." She looked into the author's personal history in addition to reading her stories.

Spalding summed up the intentions of the writers by saying, "What was so compelling to us is that Rowan, in the pilot, says, 'If I had power, things would be different for women.' And then she starts to get power, and the question is, is she going to do that, [and] how is she going to do that?"

The panel concluded with a hope for a Season 2. "You'll tell us," said Johnson.