The cancellation reaper has claimed another victim, and unsurprisingly its latest victim is yet another series featuring a diverse cast, strong female leads, and queer representation. It may be hard to believe, but this time it isn’t Netflix jumping the gun and cancelling another series—this time it’s Peacock driving a stake straight into the hearts of Vampire Academy fans.
Based on Richelle Mead’s beloved book series, Vampire Diaries alums Julie Plec and Marguerite MacIntyre brought a fresh new approach to the world of moroi, dhampirs, and strigoi. They recognized that their audience was no longer the teenagers that read the book series fifteen years ago, so they leaned into the political intrigue of the royal court and delivered the kind of complicated, sensual romance that all of these characters deserved. But most of all, they recognized that a world of magic and vampires couldn’t just be straight and white.
From the moment that Sisi Stringer and Daniela Nieves appeared on the screen, they simply became Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir. Their performances made it so easy to forget the models that graced the covers, the fancasts over the years, or the film that preceded the series. In the books, both characters were white, but in the series fans finally got to see themselves in the characters—and in a genre that has largely centered around white stories. How many supernatural series have been led by Black and Latina women? In a long line of Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Elena Gilberts (Nina Dobrev), Vampire Academy let BIPOC fans see themselves as kickass heroines—and deliciously bad girls like Tatiana Vogel (Anita-Joy Uwajeh).
There may be plenty of interracial relationships across television series, but there are far fewer interracial relationships that involve two non-white characters. With Vampire Academy, fans were treated to Rose’s messy romance with Mason Ashford (Andrew Liner), Lissa’s sweet and complicated relationship with Christian Ozera (André Dae Kim), and the marriage of Victor Dashkov (J. August Richards) and Robert Karp (Cornelius Macarthy). Two of these relationships involved the series’ leads, and the latter wasn’t just an afterthought—it was given depth and conflict. The first season also gave wing to a sapphic romance between Mia Karp (Mia McKenna-Bruce) and Meredith Beckham (Rhian Blundell). It feels weird to reduce a series to the representation it brings to the screen, but it seems like something that needs to be discussed when streamers keep cancelling series that are led by women of color and prominently feature queer relationships.
Beyond the breath of fresh air that is the diversity and inclusion that Vampire Academy brought fans, the cast delivered some truly unforgettable performances. Particularly Kieron Moore, who brought so much depth and nuance to Dimitri Belikov. Yes, he’s a very pretty face to look at (I mean, have you seen this entire cast!?) and his chemistry with Stringer burned even hotter than the Rose/Dimitri romance in the novels, but it was the quiet moments that lingered long after the finale. And the best was yet to come! It’s a tragedy that Peacock has robbed him of his fangs, and denied audiences the chance to see him become Strigoi.
Though Plec and MacIntyre saw fit to rearrange some aspects of the story—delivering a much more tragic romance between Sonya Karp (Jonetta Kaiser) and Mikhail Tanner (Max Parker)—every single member of the cast delivered 110%, and the fans were so grateful for their performances. It doesn’t matter if somewhere, down the line, someone else tries to adapt the series—this cast is the cast. There will be no one who does these roles better.
The Trouble With Streaming
The series landed on the streamer last year, right as summer came to a close, and when the review embargo lifted, critics were overwhelmingly positive about it. Sitting at a Tomatometer score of 77% (with 13 critic reviews) the series faired far better than the film adaptation from eight years prior, and significantly better than AMC’s Mayfair Witches (which earned a paltry 42%).
A decade ago, a show could survive for five to ten seasons with modest Nielsen ratings and a crummy weeknight time slot. Back then, as streaming started to encroach on cable and premium channels, some series even secured renewals based on the increased numbers they garnered once a new season dropped on Netflix or Hulu. But now, as the streaming realm becomes more and more fractured—with nearly every studio deciding to hop into the streaming game—television series are no longer given the chance to gain an audience.
Peacock’s streaming service is not quite three years old and barely old enough to walk in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria, Germany, and Italy. While the United States got to watch Vampire Academy in September, some regions, like Latin America, won’t even see it debut until February—nearly a month after its cancellation. Based on Google Trends, the United States wasn’t even the country that was searching for Vampire Academy the most in the past twelve months; it was countries like Jamaica, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and Australia.
Even though Peacock has slowly become available in other countries, Vampire Academy wasn’t even in their catalog for fans to watch it. In the United Kingdom, it streamed on Now TV; in Canada, it could be found on StackTV; in Australia, it landed on Stan; in France, the series remains in the Top 10 on Amazon Prime; in Nordic countries, it debuted on SkyShowtime, and when it finally arrives in Latin America next month, it will stream on Lionsgate+. With seven different streaming sites and a handful of different premiere dates—how did the studio expect it to be an overnight success? It’s unfair to blame the fans for a series underperforming when the studio has failed to make a series accessible to the very fans they’re trying to court.
The Future of 'Vampire Academy'
Up until a few weeks ago, it looked like Vampire Academy’s first season was set to receive a home release, which would have likely helped to boost its numbers, but it’s unclear if its cancellation will make NBCUniversal reverse course. Hopefully, they take note of the fact that hashtags like #VampireAcademy and #SaveVampireAcademy are trending around the world.
In the wake of Vampire Academy’s cancellation, Plec has signaled that they are trying to shop the series around to other streamers, which has given fans a certain degree of hope. As with every other cancelled series with an active fanbase, Vampire Academy fans have taken to social media to criticize Peacock’s decision and to petition other streamers to procure the series.
With the series’ success on Prime Video in countries like France, and with Plec heading up her adaptation of We Were Liars for the streamer, some fans are hoping that Amazon Studios might take on the series. With The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel coming to an end with Season 5, and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power seeing a pretty long hiatus before Season 2 arrives, it would make sense for Amazon to take on a new series—especially one with a built-in fandom. But Prime Video isn’t the only streamer that fans are hoping will become their savior, others are tagging Hulu, HBO Max, and Netflix—though the latter two have proven to be rather fickle when it comes to their own, original content.
Peacock may have cancelled Vampire Academy, but it can’t cancel the fandom’s willingness to come together and turn disappointment into something positive. As they campaign across social media, fans of the series have come together to shower the cast with love, raise funds for the Trevor Project, and encourage fans to donate blood. The fandom is clearly willing to fight until the bitter end. Even if the Vampire Academy isn’t saved by another streamer, the series brought people together and elevated the cast to the next stages of their careers. They will always be our Rose, Lissa, Dimitri, Christian, Mia, Sonya, Meredith, and Mason, and the fans will always be thankful for what they have given us.
Season 1 of Vampire Academy is streaming now on Peacock or via a dozen other streamers around the world.