Shortly after the debut of Episode 7 of Vampire Academy, co-showrunner Julie Plec arrived at NYCC to talk about the hit Peacock series at an exclusive fan event hosted at the Javits Center's Community Lounge. The panel was moderated by Collider's own Maggie Lovitt (yours truly), and I spoke with Plec about what drew her to work on another series about vampires so close to the end of the Vampire Diaries franchise, the decision to combine and consolidate certain characters, what inspired them to move the setting of St. Vladimir's from Montana to Europe, among many other questions.
Vampire Academy is a brilliant and fresh new adaptation of Richelle Mead's beloved bestselling series by the same name, which is a story of friendship, romance, and danger. During the panel, Plec shared that one of the reasons why she wanted to adapt the book series is because she is also a fan of the novels, which is clear from how lovingly it has been adapted and updated. Sisi Stringer and Daniela Nieves star as Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir, two young women whose friendship transcends their strikingly different classes in a world of privilege, glamour, and vampires. The series also stars Kieron Moore, André Dae Kim, J. August Richards, Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Mia Mckenna-Bruce, Jonetta Kaiser, Andrew Liner, and Rhian Blundell who flesh out this world of danger and political intrigue.
While the cast of Vampire Academy weren't able to attend New York Comic Con this year, I did get two questions for Plec from Daniela Nieves and Kieron Moore. Nieves was curious to know what the most difficult part of the audition process was and Plec revealed that time zones and Zoom proved to be the biggest challenge. While digital auditions helped them be able to find cast members from around the world, it made it difficult to do chemistry tests for pivotal relationships (like Lissa and Rose and Rose and Dimitri). It also meant some prospective cast members had to sign in for auditions at 5 A.M. in the morning! Moore's question hit on a topic that a lot of fans at the panel were excited to learn more about: Rose and Dimitri. He asked what Plec's favorite Romitri moment from Season 1 is and Plec revealed that it's one that fans haven't seen yet. You'll have to tune in next week to see the heated moment that she was alluding to.
During the panel, Plec also spoke about why they chose to kill Mikhail (Max Parker) so early on in the series to increase the stakes and remind audiences that this is a dangerous world; how they looked for an actor with "pillowy lips" when casting Adrian (Leo Woodall), how they don't have the rights to his spinoff book series Bloodlines yet, but that there's still plenty of Adrian and Sydney in the Vampire Academy books to work with, and how Mason (Andrew Liner) will likely live longer than he did in the books. During fan questions, she also discussed the decision behind casting Stringer, discussions that were had about purposeful diversity, learning from Vampire Diaries criticism, and how J. August Richards asked for Victor Dashkov's husband to be Black to push back against how media typically portrays Black queer men.
While Vampire Academy hasn't been renewed for a second season yet, Plec did speak about how far ahead they've planned, which characters have clear two-season arcs, and she even spoke about how they might handle the ski trip from the second novel, and even teased the angst-fueled Rose and Dimitri storyline from the novels (spoiler alert: yes, Strigtri).
And while she didn't give any spoilers for the next couple of episodes, she did tease that Episode 10 made her cry. Get those hankies ready!