Forget about Brat Summer: AMC is claiming 2026’s warm weather months as Vamp Summer. The cable network and its AMC+ streaming arm previewed an upcoming 2026-27 slate at a special showcase event in New York on Wednesday that was heavy on thrills, chills, and that sporting life. Speaking of sports, AMC got a jump on the competition, rolling out its plans ahead of this year’s TV Upfront Week, which kicks off May 11 in Manhattan and brings many of the big networks and streamers — from ABC to Prime Video — to town.
Naturally, that vainglorious bloodsucker Lestat took center stage at the AMC upfront, with Interview With a Vampire breakout star Sam Reid headlining the show’s Season 3 return on June 7 under a different title: The Vampire Lestat. Speaking of big returns, the network announced a fresh season in its Rise series of spots docs, this time focused on the Super Bowl XLIV champs, the New Orleans Saints. Switching tracks from football to racing, ’80s icon Dennis Quaid will star in AMC’s new NASCAR drama, Thunder Road, which will speed onto screens in 2027. And while we wait for more Heated Rivalry, AMC+ is graciously bringing Hudson Williams back to your screen in the Canadian thriller series Yaga, also starring Carrie-Anne Moss.
Reid and his Interview co-star, Jacob Anderson, were in the house for AMC’s upfront event along Quaid, Alexandria Daddario from The Mayfair Witches, Billy Magnussen and some of his fellow stars of The Audacity, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and other Walking Dead fan favorites, and Brooke Shields, who is headlining Acorn’s latest cozy mystery series, You’re Killing Me. Throughout the evening, AMC executives emphasized their fandom-first approach to programming, targeting specific audiences rather than casting the widest possilble net with each series.
“Instead of getting bigger, we’re focused on getting closer,” said one exec. “Our model is more boutique than big box; we meet viewers where they are with a level of personalization, focus, community, and curation that is increasingly rare in media today.”
Here’s a look ahead at the boutique offerings that AMC and AMC+ is bringing to your TV table with an eye on stirring up some 2027 Emmys love.
Feeling vampish
AMC’s hopes of building an immortal franchise out of Rice’s Immortal Universe dimmed slightly last year after its newest series, Talamasca: The Secret Order, didn’t survive beyond one season. And while Season 2 of The Mayfair Witches performed well enough to merit a third year, that series still doesn’t attract the critical or outpouring of fan love that envelopes the Interview With the Vampire mothership.
In other words, Reid’s Lestat and Jacob Anderson’s Louis are returning to AMC at exactly the right time to right the Immortal Universe. And the network plans to reward the Interview faithful with a super-sized premiere event on June 2 at the Beacon Theatre in New York that includes a screening of Season 3’s inaugural episode, plus a live performance by Reid as the rock star version of Lestat we’ll meet this year belting out composer Daniel Hart’s original songs. The vampire rocker even has a custom guitar for the occasion from the good folks at Fender.
While Interview instantly won over critics, Emmy voters have been slower to get hip to the series. After Season 1 was snubbed outright, the sophomore year picked up a pair of nominations for hairstyling and makeup. Perhaps with that in mind, AMC opted not to rush the series onto the air ahead of the 2026 Emmy deadline in favor of a summer debut that gives they the runway to be in the 2027 conversation. That certainly gives Lestat’s original songs plenty of time to earworm their way into voters’ minds for consideration in those Emmy categories.
The music was a major talking point during the presentation, with an AMC exec describing Reid as a “phenomenal vocalist” and praising Hart’s tunes as “extraordinary.” While the actor didn’t preview any of the songs at the upfront, the world-famous New York City Gay Men’s Chorus did close out the show by singing Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself,” while The Vampire Lestat trailer played in the background. Lestat, of course, never dances alone.
Staying in the horror realm, AMC will launch the latest edition of The Terror anthology series, Devil in Silver, on May 7. Dan Stevens headlines this six-episode story as a man who is wrongfully locked up in a spooky asylum where fear lurks around every corner. While the show’s previous seasons have failed to scare up any Emmy recognition, the presence of industry favorites like Judith Light and CCH Pounder could attract some hardy souls among the TV Academy membership. But horror can still be a big ask for some; we spotted Shields covering her eyes when the Devil in Silver trailer played in the room.
Road warrior
After Apple scored a Best Picture nod — and a Best Sound win — by getting into the F1 business, AMC is opting to take a lap with NASCAR. The first name in stock car racing is a production partner on Thunder Road, a dynastic family drama that hails from Marco Polo creator John Fusco and will be overseen by Justified and Tulsa King veteran Taylor Elmore. Three decades after they shared the screen in Wyatt Earp, Quaid entered Kevin Costner-in-Yellowstone territory as Duane Whitlock, the patriarch of a NASCAR clan out to preserve their exalted status on the cutthroat circuit.
“Thunder Road is the saga of the first family of NASCAR,” teased an AMC exec, adding that the series goes before cameras this summer. “They’re a multi-generational racing dynasty surrounded by ruthless competitors who would do anything to dethrone or destroy them.”
As with so many Taylor Sheridan shows, Yellowstone famously struggled to gain Emmy traction during its five-season run. But even if Thunder Road fails to qualify for the major categories, F1 demonstrated how top-shelf racing stories can be in the pole position for technical honors, particularly in sound, editing and visual effects categories. Let’s see if viewers give this one a thunderous reception.
Baba O’Hudson
Oh, Canada — the home and native land of Tim Hortons, Rick Moranis ,and Heated Rivalry. With that hockey romance still burning up the streaming charts on this side of the border, networks and streamers are taking a closer look at other Canadian imports… particularly when they come with a Rivalry connection. That’s why AMC+ snapped up Yaga, a modern-day telling of the Baba Yaga myth starring the once and future Shane Hollander along with Moss, Schitt’s Creek‘s Noah Reid and Letterkenny‘s Clark Backo.
Penned by playwright Kat Sandler from her own play, the eight-episode thriller casts Williams as the missing small-town heir to a big fishing company who may have fallen under the spell of Moss’ mystery woman. Like Heated Rivalry, Yaga won’t be Emmy-eligible since the series is an exclusively Canadian production with AMC+ just picking up the U.S. distribution rights. But with the heat still very much on Williams, this is likely to drive some new streaming sign-ups.
Stay tuned
Coming to AMC and AMC+ in late 2027 are new versions of two genuine American classics: Point Break and The Grapes of Wrath. The latter adaptation of John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel will be the first installment in the network’s Great American Stories anthology series that will presumably usher other staples of high school and college literary curricula to the small screen. Friday Night Lights scribe Rolin Jones and Fear the Walking Dead writer Brett C. Leonard will be penning this new take on the Joad family, presumably with fewer zombies.
Meanwhile, the Point Break series bills itself as a continuation — not a reboot — of the Kathryn Bigelow action classic that gave the world some of the best movie quotes of the ’90s. Picking up the story 25 years after Keanu Reeves’s Johnny Utah mixed it up with the late Patrick Swayze’s surfboard enthusiast/bank robber Bohdi, the series will follow a new safecracking crew with connections to the Ex-Presidents. What can we say except… vaya con dios.
Looking further out, AMC has enlisted Lethal Weapon mastermind Shane Black to turn John Maxim’s Bannerman bestsellers into a Reacher-style action hit as director and executive producer. The Walking Dead‘s Greg Nicotero will also be part of the creative team as the series starts the long and winding road to a yet-to-be announced release date. Let’s maybe bookmark Bannerman for the 2029 Emmys.
