[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the series premiere of Let the Right One In.]
Let the Right One In takes most of its inspiration from the 2008 Swedish film, according to its cast. Grace Gummer, Nick Stahl, Kevin Carroll, and Jacob Buster stopped by TV Insider and TV Guide Magazine’s studio at New York Comic Con 2022 to chat about the Let the Right One In series premiere, which debuted October 9 on Showtime. And in the above video interview, we dive into the premiere cliffhanger and what it means for the show moving forward.
Let the Right One In started as a book and has gotten two film iterations (one Swedish, one American) since. The Swedish film seems to be this cast’s favorite version. “We try to capture the spirit of that movie while at the same time creating our own universe,” says Stahl, whose character, Matthew, is a bit of an enigma in the premiere. Viewers meet him in the terminally ill Arthur Logan’s (Željko Ivanek) mansion. We met Arthur, a lauded scientist, in the first moments of the series premiere as he has his vampire son, Peter (Buster), try out the vampirism cure he’s been developing by stepping out into the sun. It tragically doesn’t work, and Peter’s body lights up in flames.
Gummer’s Claire Logan has believed her brother to be dead for 10 years, and her relationship with her father is estranged. After his cure test fails, Arthur urges Claire to return home. The last moments of the finale finds Claire learning that her brother not only is alive (well, as “alive” as vampires can be), but his death was faked in order to cover up his vampirism. Claire, also a scientist, will now stick around to help her brother and seemingly help her father in his pursuit to develop a cure.
“Her entire life, as she has known it for the last 10 years, is completely upended and nowhere near what she thought it was. She has to wrap her brain around it in a matter of hours,” Gummer explains. “What really drives her — and what really drove me, as an actor — was the love that [Claire and Peter] share. The only real love she has known in her life, as a caretaker, as a sister, as a friend, is her brother, and in this chaotic, hostile, incredibly precarious world that this show takes place in… love is the only thing we really can understand. That familiar feeling comes back, and that’s the engine that drives her. From there, she has to make a series of decisions that come at a great cost, but it’s all for [Peter].”
Peter is alive, but is covered head-to-toe in painful burns that would have killed a human. Buster says the special effects makeup took nearly three hours to apply and about an hour and a half to get out of. For him, Peter’s gentleness in that moment was the best part of the scene. “Peter as a person feels so different from the way that he looks at the end of the episode,” he says. “I loved that contradiction from this love that he has with his sister and finally being able to see her again while being through that physical pain, I loved it. I think it was great.”
Stahl says his Matthew is “a loyal employee to Arthur, the Logan family. He’s kind of a son to him.” He’s tasked with caring for Peter and “doing what needs done” for a cure. And when “things change in the family, [Matthew and Claire] start working closely together, and we join forces to continue this search.”
Emily Aragones/SHOWTIME
The final moments of Let the Right One In Episode 1 revealed the connection between the two groups of casts in the show. Over in New York City, Demián Bichir‘s Mark, a former chef, has also been hunting for a cure ever since his young daughter, Eleanor (Madison Taylor Baez) was turned into a vampire 10 years prior. As Peter and Claire reconnect, the camera pans to a photo in Peter’s bedroom that shows him at a summer camp. On the other side of the photo is Eleanor, implying Peter could be the vampire who turned her, or he could have been turned at the same time as her.
Carroll’s Zeke, an NYC restaurant owner, knows that Ellie is a vampire, and it has severely strained his close friendship with Mark. Carroll teases a “deep journey” between the two men this season, both of whom are still in love with Mark’s late wife (who may or may not have been killed by her own daughter… TBD).
“[Showrunner Andrew Hinderaker] has managed to put a very human sense of camaraderie in this relationship that we have,” he shares. “In this world, there are difficulties because of the love of the friendship between these two guys that will unfold. We get a deep journey because of the love Andrew has managed to infuse in these characters for each other.”
Learn more about the series in the full video interview from NYCC, above.
Let the Right One In, Sundays, 10/9c, Showtime
