The setting of the first season series primarily takes place in a historic red-light district of New Orleans called Storyville. It was open from 1897-1917. Most buildings from that time were leveled and demolished during the Great Depression and only a few structures managed to survive. As a result of this, most of the set presented in certain scenes had to be built from scratch. Storyville was also known as the birthplace of New Orleans jazz, and is associated with famed musicians Louis Armstrong, Ferdinand 'Jelly Roll' Morton, and Buddy Bolden
The opening credit sequence is an emerging composite image consisting of the skyline of Dubai and New Orleans. Dubai is on the bottom of the frame, with New Orleans on the top, which when brought together resembles a set of "Vampire fangs".
Anne Rice herself announced that she had regained the rights and was planning to adapt the novels for television alongside her son, Christopher Rice.
The show's second season was greenlit before the show's first season aired.
Sam Reid, who portrays Lestat de Lioncourt, is a huge fan of The Vampire Chronicles novels and had read them as a child. After he was cast, he went back and reread the novels to study Lestat as a character.