Julie Plec is entering another vampire universe, so of course, I was going to follow her to it. And she brought Marguerite MacIntyre with her. What could be more exciting than that? Oh, it has a political undertone that is so relevant today. But I was already so in. The panel at San Diego Comic-Con made me even more excited about the series. Plus, now I want to read the books too.
While I’ve never read the books, I did see the movie that came out a while ago. I liked it, but I also like the actress Zoey Deutch. No one on the panel would speak about the film, though. So, clearly, that wasn’t what book fans hoped for. Likewise, Legacies wasn’t the show we all hoped it would be, but now Julie has a chance to do something similar to that, but this time in a different vampire world. And the cast seems like they are going to be incredible. They seem to click and care about the show so much. While Sisi Stringer (who plays Rose Hathaway) was the only one to read the book series before auditioning, they have all read and have fallen in love with them.
The panel showed the trailer and the first 16 minutes of the series. Unfortunately, I had a hat in my way while watching, so I didn’t get the full experience, but I was intrigued. Julie said she didn’t start the series the same way as the book. As you will see, she starts it with the tragic car accident that happens before the book begins. Julie believed there was a story there to tell. She also said she left out the lust spell and didn’t have as much of the party, seeing as that’s what most of the first books is. That wasn’t the story Julie and Marguerite wanted to tell. They’ve taken things from several of the books for the first season. Julie also said they’ve pulled the “real intrigue stuff forward.” This includes the big political story.
One of the most interesting parts of the panel was finding out that Julie read the Vampire Academy books before she read The Vampire Diaries series. Her journey for this series started in about 2007/2008. Unfortunately, no one was creating the type of show she wanted back then. Fast forward, and Peacock asked her if she could do any show what would it be, and she replied with the Vampire Academy.
While TVD was centered around two brothers, and The Originals was centered around siblings. This story’s central characters are two best friends that society doesn’t want to be together. Rose Hathaway was semi-adopted into the Dragomir family and lived all of the privileges of that. After Lissa Dragomir’s family dies, they are thrown into the different worlds they were born into and have to decide what to do. I’m intrigued by this storyline. It shouldn’t matter what part of society you are born into. Friends should come from anywhere. So, I’m looking forward to seeing how they defy society.
As I said before, the cast seems like a lot of fun and loves the story they are telling. They all seem confident fans of the books will not be disappointed with their interpretation. I’ve read some of the books of big shows and movies: Harry Potter, The Notebook, The Hobbit. I didn’t start reading the Potter books until after the fourth movie. I was a little old for the series by then but couldn’t wait until the next film at that point. So, I read the fifth, then went to the third and fourth and back to the first and second. The Notebook I also read after the movie, but The Hobbit book I read first. I tried to read the Gossip Girl books, but they were too different for me to get into. It feels like this adaptation will take a lot from the books, so I may have to try to read them before the series starts, but that isn’t that long way. So, I better get on that.
In the meantime, check out the trailer and let me know if you are excited for the Vampire Academy, premiering on Sept. 15 on Peacock.
