AMC used its New York Comic Con panel to fix a year-end slot for its Anne Rice Universe: Mayfair Witches: Salem Coven will premiere Dec. 30. The third season also signals a creative reset, moving the family of witches out of New Orleans and into Salem.
A franchise shifts geography
Co-showrunner Esta Spalding said the season is “really inspired by the books,” but not working from an exact story in them. Salem is a deliberate choice: the real people were innocent, not witches, and the show imagines a hidden lineage of witches embedded in that history. Co-showrunner Tom Schnauz framed the shift as “an urge to shake it up.”
Alexandra Daddario’s Rowan is being written as more commanding this season, with new characters—including a witch who has never left Salem—giving her more people to play against. Harry Hamlin, whose Cortland is now possessed by Julian, summed up the tone as “batshit crazy.”
Two new genre bets
- Kill Jackie: Catherine Zeta-Jones stars and executive produces. Based on Nick Harkaway’s novel The Price You Pay, the thriller flips the book’s male lead, Jack Price, into Jackie Price, a former drug queenpin hunted by seven elite assassins.
- Yaga: Carrie-Anne Moss stars and executive produces in a spin on Baba Yaga. A private investigator arrives in a coastal town to look into an heir’s disappearance and runs into local suspicion and ancient magic.
AMC also confirmed the fourth and final season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon will arrive in February.
Why the package matters
For streaming and TV business readers, the panel is a scheduling signal. AMC is putting three star-led genre titles into one fan event, two of them built around female leads cast against their past screen personas. Zeta-Jones called the role a turn that let her “get down and dirty,” while Moss said the lower-budget production asked every department to bring more each day.
The Kill Jackie team confirmed the gender swap happened early and became a reason Zeta-Jones joined as actor and executive producer. That positioning is the story: a known novel being sold as a reinvention rather than a translation. Showrunner Kat Sandler’s framing for Yaga does similar work, treating witches as women society decided to fear rather than folklore alone.
For planners
December 30 is a quieter stretch for new releases, and a fan-facing Comic Con moment can carry awareness into the premiere window. AMC’s slate then runs through February with Daryl Dixon, giving genre buyers a continuous stretch to plan around from the holiday season into early 2026.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
