The first four episodes of Vampire Academy will be available to stream on Peacock starting September 15. The show is based on a series of bestselling novels by Richelle Mead, and centers around Rose Hathaway (Sisi Stringer, Mortal Kombat), who is determined to keep her best friend, Lissa Dragomir (Daniela Nieves, Five Points), safe from the evil lurking about the fantasy world.
The main cast also includes Kieron Moore, André Dae Kim, J. August Richards, Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Rhian Blundell, Jonetta Kaiser, and Andrew Liner.
Screen Rant chats with executive producers Julie Plec and Marguerite McIntyre about the book to television adaptation and if fan-favorite characters, Adrian and Sydney, will be included in the series.
Screen Rant: This is not the first time that you've worked together in the vampire genre or done a book-to-TV adaptation. Something I personally enjoy about The Vampire Diaries is how different the show is from the books. It gives it that element of unpredictability. Is that something you're going for with Vampire Academy, as well?
Julie Plec: It is, to a degree. We are both very big fans of Vampire Academy, the book series by Richelle Mead. We read them before we did Vampire Diaries, so we go way back with the material. And what I always appreciated about it was, there is so much in these books to work with. There's so much story—so many incredible romantic relationships, friendships, the political intrigue, and the Royal Court—all those things gives us everything we need.
And so we had a lot of fun trying to be as true to the world that Richelle had created, and the characters that she had created, but not necessarily telling the story in the same way that she did from the beginning, so that there would be a lot of surprises for the audience that might be really familiar with the books, but not leaving them saying, "Well, wait a minute. Where's the thing that I love so much?" It's all in there. It's just not necessarily all in there in the same way that you might expect.
Screen Rant: How much of this world are you hoping to explore? It may be a little early—but do you have any plans to include characters like Adrian or Sydney who are more predominantly featured in the spinoff series?
Julie Plec: We absolutely talk a lot about Adrian and Sydney. A lot. And we'll kind of leave it at there for now, but come ask us that again when we're back for Season 2.
Screen Rant: Alright. We have Rose as our protagonist, who has a lot of defining characteristics in the books. She was probably my favorite character when I read them. What aspects of her personality did you feel were most important to carry over to the show?
Marguerite McIntyre: She's so many things. I love Rose too. She's so fierce. She knows herself so well. I wish that I were as smart about myself as Rose is about her. She's very insightful about what she wants, about what she considers to be fair, about how to be a good friend, how she feels about Dimitri—all these things are really clear for her, and she's willing to stand up every day for what she thinks and what she believes in. And she's funny as hell at the same time, and she's spirited, and she's glorious.
Julie Plec: I love in the books how she's constantly getting herself into trouble.
Marguerite McIntyre: Well, that too.
Julie Plec: And that's a hard line to dance with your female lead, because you want them to have an integrity. You want them to be a rootable hero, but you want them to be real. And our Rose is constantly messing up too. She's constantly putting her foot in her mouth and saying or doing the thing, or speaking her mind in the place where it's not appropriate. And I love that about her.
Marguerite McIntyre: And she's standing up for stuff. Maybe not always at the right time or place [laughs].
Screen Rant: There are a lot of friendships and romances in the books as well. Are there any that you're particularly excited to bring to the screen or for fans to see?
Julie Plec: All of them. What we were able to do, I mean, look, first of all, Rose and Dimitri and Lissa and Christian, we knew going in, you can't you can't screw that up, you've got to get that right. And that was really important to us. And so we really feel very excited about what audiences are going to get to see in those two relationships.
But we also realized, as we were rereading the books, that there was no actualized queer representation in the books. And so we got to build some really great queer relationships as well. And we're really excited to be able to introduce that to the audience, and the fans of these books, who may not be expecting that.
Screen Rant: Now...what's the difference between the vampires in Vampire Academy and vampires like the Salvatore brothers?
Julie Plec: Honestly, the vampires in Vampire Academy are really interesting because the Moroi vampires—what we'll call the good vampires, depending on your perspective—they actually fall outside a lot of the rules of what we know traditional vampires to be. They are, in fact, mortal beings. They can grow old, and they can die, it just takes a lot longer than a normal human. They drink blood, but they are not allowed to kill. Because if they killed when they were feeding, they would actually be turned into the Strigoi, who are much more in line with the vampire of old lore—violent and primal and the need to feed driving their every move.
So we get to kind of have our cake and eat it too. We get to have the dark, scary, terrifying, monstrous vampire that I think really scratches the itch of somebody who loves the genre. But then we also get to have the sort of daintier, more poised, more prim...the gentle, elegant vampire that often comes along with the whole idea of the gentleman vampire—the seducer. Those kinds of things. So we get to have it all.
Vampire Academy Synopsis
From executive producer Julie Plec comes a story of romance, friendship, death, sex, and scandal. Vampire Academy is based on a series of young adult paranormal romance novels by international bestselling author Richelle Mead. In a world of privilege and glamour, two young women’s friendship transcends their strikingly different classes as they prepare to complete their education and enter royal vampire society. This serialized and sexy drama combines the elegance of aristocratic romance and the supernatural thrills of the vampire genre.
Check out our other interviews for Vampire Academy as well:
- Daniela Nieves & Sisi Stringer
- J. August Richards & Jonetta Kaiser
- Kieron Moore, André Dae Kim, & Andrew Liner
- Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Rhian Blundell, & Mia Mckenna-Bruce
- Cast At SDCC
The first four episodes of Vampire Academy will be available to stream on Peacock starting Thursday, September 15, with the following episodes added weekly.