From the director of The Vampire Diaries comes a story of love, duty, and rebellion. Vampire Academy, based on the book series by Richelle Mead and a reboot of the ill-fated 2014 film of the same name, sees two women from very different walks of life fighting for self-determination and for each other within the halls of a vampire boarding school. Lissa and Rose, vampire royalty and dhampir guardian respectively, share a psychic connection as well as a close relationship, and Rose is in training to protect Lissa from the various dangers that exist outside the boarding school’s walls. However, the evil vampires known as strigoi are the least of the girls’ worries; the biggest threat facing them just might be the world within the boarding school itself.
Vampire Academy is developed by Julie Plec and Marguerite MacIntyre. Plec is an old hand at vampire fiction, having directed The Vampire Diaries and its two spinoffs, The Originals, and Legacies. MacIntyre has worked with Plec before, performing as Elizabeth in The Vampire Diaries and serving as a writer and producer on The Originals. Both women are perfectly placed to make Vampire Academy a worthy addition to the world of vampire fiction. The main character Rose Hathaway is portrayed by Sisi Stringer, fresh from her role as Mileena in 2021’s Mortal Kombat. She’s a veteran of horror as well, having appeared in Children of the Corn and Bloody Hell. Joining her as Lissa Moroi is Daniela Nieves, whose acting roles lean more toward the drama end of the spectrum. She’s appeared in 2021’s crime drama series Snowfall, the legal drama All Rise, and the teen horror drama Save Me. Now without further ado, here's how you can watch the series.
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When and Where Can You Stream Vampire Academy Online?
Vampire Academy premieres on September 15, 2022, on Peacock. In case you don't have one already, Peacock subscriptions cost $4.99 a month for the premium plan. There's also a free version with ads that gives you limited access to the streamer's catalog.
Vampire Academy Season 1 Episodes
The series is set to have ten episodes in its first season. The first four episodes are currently scheduled to arrive on the day of the premiere. Each episode is expected to have a runtime of about one hour. Here are all the episode details that have been revealed so far:
Episode 1: "Pilot" - September 15, 2022
After Rose and Lissa's plans for the future are upended by tragedy, a new Guardian puts Rose's job at risk. Meanwhile, Lissa comes to terms with her new role at court as danger lurks beyond the wards.
Episode 2: "Earth. Air. Water. Fire." - September 15, 2022
Lissa fears the world will learn her secret. Rose must face the consequences of her actions.
Episode 3: "Death Watch" - September 15, 2022
The Dominion suffers a great loss. Rose meets her match. Christian receives shocking news.
Episode 4: "Benchmark" - September 15, 2022
Episode 5: "Near Guard, Far Guard" - September 15, 2022
Episode 6: "Mlnija" - September 22, 2022
Episode 7: "Beyond the Wards" - October 7, 2022
Episode 8: "The Trials" - October 13, 2022
Episode 9: "Darkness" - October 20, 2022
Episode 10: "Ascension" - October 27, 2022
Watch the Vampire Academy Trailer
The trailer gives us our first glimpse of the world vampire princess Lissa Dragomir lives in; one full of opulence, sex, blood, and false smiles. Over these displays of wealth and excess, a voiceover warns of “the dangers that lurk outside our gates” of St. Vladimir’s. We then cut to our first glimpse of Rose, who is participating in an unarmed combat class. It will be her job to combat whatever is lurking in that outer darkness. “I want to do my sworn duty,” she states. There’s a brief series of flashes of Rose doing just that, desperately fighting to protect Lissa from a monster that turns out to be called a strigoi. The trailer also teases a more intimate scene between Rose and her instructor Dimitri, Lissa sitting at a grave, and some kind of ceremony. The trailer also shows how Rose and Lissa start to develop a psychic link. There are also scenes of combat that devolve into all-out war. Watch it all in the player above!
Related:'Vampire Academy' Images Tease Rose/Dimitri and St. Vladimir's
What's the Plot of Vampire Academy?
The series appears to at least roughly follow the events of the book. Lissa, a princess of the royal vampire Moroi family, once used her magic to return Rose to life as a dhampir, a kind of half-vampire, and they’ve been best friends ever since. The pair’s bond is tested when they are brought to St. Vladimir’s Academy, an institution hell-bent on binding them into the roles their society has decreed for them: Lissa as the next monarch whose role will be to maintain the power structures that already exist, and Rose as servant and guardian with no will of her own. In addition, their entire society is threatened by strigoi: savage vampires whose goal is to turn Lissa into one of them and kill everyone else. Lissa and Rose’s close bond, along with their forbidden romances with Christian and Dimitri respectively, fly in the face of vampire society’s strictures, and their struggle to maintain their self-determination will become a catalyst for rebellion.
More Shows and Movies like Vampire Academy to Watch Next
Another vampire teen drama based on a book series of the same name and directed by Julie Plec? Sign us up! The Vampire Diaries follows orphaned teenager Elena (Nina Dobrev) as she navigates a love triangle between vampire brothers, wholesome Stefan (Paul Wesley) and dangerous Damon (Ian Somerhalder), and struggles to survive various supernatural threats, chief among them being Damon’s former lover and her own vampire doppelgänger, Katherine. The show found a loyal audience in the early 2010s and produced two spinoff series. The Vampire Diaries is available for streaming on HBO Max.
Most vampire romances are told from the perspective of the human lover-slash-victim, but the movie Drink, Slay, Love, based on the book of the same name by Sarah Beth Durst, pulls a reverse card by making the teenage vampire the focus of the story. Pearl (Cierra Ramirez) is sixteen, a vampire, and newly immune to death by sunlight that keeps the rest of her family caged - an immunity that sees them sending her to high school to meet people her own age, make some friends, and ultimately betray them to be slaughtered at a feast fit for a Vampire King! Pearl’s attitude quickly makes her popular, but when she begins to develop feelings for her new friends - and for one boy in particular - she begins to develop a conscience that may save her friends’ lives, or doom them all. Drink, Slay, Love is available for streaming on DirecTV and Lifetime.
From vampires to aliens, we have Star-Crossed, a 2014 TV series about love in the face of prejudice. When a ship full of alien Atrians crashlands in a small town, humans react with their typical open-mindedness and tolerance and attack the Atrians immediately. Amid the chaos, a human child named Emery shelters an Atrian boy of the same age named Roman. Ten years later, a few Atrian teenagers are being allowed out of their internment camp to attend high school for the first time, and Emery (Aimee Teegarden) and Roman (Matt Lanter) reunite. They begin a relationship that will invite the ire of their peers and parents and threatens to engulf their town in conflict once more. Star-Crossed is available for rent via Amazon and Vudu.
