Last week, it was announced that Alexandra Daddario (Texas Chainsaw 3D, We Summon the Darkness) will star in the AMC series Mayfair Witches, which is part of the network’s endeavor to build franchises out of the Anne Rice properties the Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches. Now Deadline reports that Daddario is being joined in the cast by Harry Hamlin (Mad Men, Clash of the Titans).
Hamlin is taking on the role of Cortland Mayfair, “current reigning patriarch of the Mayfair clan with a voracious appetite for more money, more power and more life”. Deadline notes that this is Hamlin’s first series regular role in over two decades. Although he earned an Emmy nomination for his work on Mad Men, he had a recurring role on that show, he wasn’t a series regular.
Rice’s three Mayfair Witches books center on
an intuitive young neurosurgeon who discovers that she is the unlikely heir to a family of witches. As she grapples with her newfound powers, she must contend with a sinister presence that has haunted her family for generations.
First published in 1990 with The Witching Hour, the Mayfair Witches trilogy also includes sequels Lasher (1993) and Taltos (1994).
Daddario is playing Rowan, “a brilliant doctor who grapples with her fate as the heir to a family of powerful witches.”
Mark Johnson (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) is overseeing the building of AMC’s Rice franchises. Esta Spaulding and Michelle Ashford, both of whom previously worked on Masters of Sex, are writers and executive producers on Mayfair Witches, with Ashford also serving as the showrunner.
AMC’s Dan McDermott had this to say about Hamlin’s casting:
From Mad Men to Mayfair, we’re delighted to have Harry back at AMC joining a cast that will bring to life the captivating world and cast of characters that Esta, Michelle and Mark have beautifully adapted for our second series in the Anne Rice universe. Harry is an immensely talented and seasoned pro and we can’t wait to see what he’ll bring to the intricate role of Cortland Mayfair.”
The first series in this AMC “Anne Rice universe” is a mini-series adaptation of Interview with the Vampire.
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