Is an Armand spin-off the right answer? And how would you do it?
There's a lot of talk about whether this "Night Island" show they may or may not be developing will 1. be greenlit and 2. actually be about Armand and Daniel 3. holds any merit to adapting outside of the main show at all.
First of all, it would be extremely difficult to do this kind of show before the main show's version of the events of Queen of the Damned come to a close, in my opinion. Since Armand and Daniel (with his David characterization) are deeply entwined in those events and the events directly after. Also because most show-only, general audience viewers won't even know the name "Night Island" and what it is yet until next season.
If the spin off does get greenlit, my personal belief is that the best way to approach it would be to set it after the Queen of the Damned when most of the world's vampires are living on Night Island. They can then use these books/chapters/plots to build something cohesive and focus the show on the Teskhaman/de Romanus bloodline with Armand, Daniel, Marius, and Pandora as the focal characters:
- The Vampire Armand novel
- Blood & Gold (about Marius but features Armand and a little bit of Daniel as well)
- Pandora (another of Marius' fledgling/lovers who has her own book)
- The Devil's Minion chapter (maybe the Pandora and Marius chapters too) from The Queen of the Damned novel for additional material in modern day or for past DM romance that won't be shown in the main show
- Maybe bits of Armand's plot in Memnoch the Devil (the religious psychosis and immolation)
- Though I think the main show will cover this tbh.
- Whatever backstory they have created for the show version of Daniel (ex-wives and children, journalism career, etc) and his relationship with the Talamasca, which overlaps nicely with the de Romanus bloodline since Teskhamen was involved in the creation of the organization
The show could easily use these books which the main show will likely scrap or skip whole sections of in order to focus on Loustat. I'm not knocking this. It makes sense to do this to trim the fat off the main show.
However, I can easily see getting 5 seasons out of this. Especially if you include other de Romanus bloodline vampires (Bianca, Flavius, Arjun, Benji, Sybelle, etc) and the antagonistic forces/characters in the books, some of whom overlap. For example Santino is an antagonist to both Armand and Marius.
The biggest challenge would be the budget to cover all the different eras/time periods/locations. It would certainly not be cheap. I think this is likely the most prohibitive part impacting AMC's willingness to invest in something like this authentically.
Another challenge will be working around whatever the main show decides to include or change from these books/plots that will impact how a spin-off like this can go.
With regards to whether the "Night Island" show would even be about Armand and Daniel... If I remember correctly the show was first conceived as a short mini-series or webisode style show about two thieves and likely was not planned to be a full blown spin off but more like bonus material. It's my personal belief that this concept spun around in production hell because they saw the fan fervor for the show to be an Armand or Devil's Minion spin-off.
They probably took it back to the drawing board when they realized how the fans would receive it if it WASN'T about them in some capacity. I think they may have realized too that they'd be shooting themselves in the foot to not center it around them. I also truly believe they pivoted between S2 and S3 to pull forward DM in S3 more for this same reason. That's why the DM of it in TVL all felt a bit clunkily handled. I don't think they were planning to tee up the romantic side this season at all originally.
What do y'all think?
PS. I really need one of these adaptations to make Armand deal or engage with the fact all three of his vampire parental figures and abusers are alive and well in modern day (Marius, Santino, and Allesandra). The untapped conflict for Armand especially with this could be so interesting.
PPS. I know this is unlikely but an extremely indulgent yet whimsical part of me would want the show to frame itself like "How I Met Your Mother" with Armand talking to Benji and Sybelle. Since TVA is meant to be dedicated to them.
PPPS. I would also indulgently enjoy a "Real Housewives of Marius de Romanus" plot given the ripe interactions you could squeeze out of Pandora, Armand, Bianca, and Daniel all living on an island together for a short time with Marius post-QOTD.