The long-awaited Vampire Academy trailer is here, and yep it’s queer.
Created by Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries) and Marguerite MacIntyre (The Originals), this new series is poised to be your next supernatural YA obsession. It’s based on the beloved book series by Richelle Mead, and according to the official logline is “a story of friendship, romance, and danger. 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 vampire society. One as a powerful Royal, the other a half-vampire Guardian trained to protect against the savage ‘Strigoi’ who threaten to tear their society apart. That is if Royal infighting doesn’t do the job first.”
While the series has always been subtextually queer, thanks to its passionate and intimate — yet platonic — central relationship between Daniela Nieves (Lissa) and her bodyguard (Sisi Stringer), in this new adaptation queerness is finally now textual, as seen in the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it queer kiss in the trailer. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of queerness and LGBTQ+ characters throughout.
While that change has made the series more timely and reflective of our world, Plec and MacIntyre have always been drawn to the series because of its timeliness, as they explained in a joint statement. ”Though we have loved Richelle Mead’s wholly original book series since it came out 15 years ago, it has never been more timely,” they said. “A brilliant exploration of an inherently unbalanced class-based society, with pampered Royals on one end, and a Guardian class whose sole purpose is to protect them on the other, as well as an ugly dynastic change on the horizon, it’s a world teetering on the edge. And though set in an enclave (most) Humans are unaware of, it’s a world that’s all too recognizable.”
“At its heart, VA is a story about the revolutionary power of friendship, particularly female friendship as we follow the extraordinary Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir, two young women on the brink of inheriting a world order they never questioned until now. And as they begin to see their world for what it is, not only do idols fall, but they realize even their own friendship isn’t immune to the cruelties of the system they were born into. A hard truth with the power to tear them apart, or spark a revolution,” they continued. “As friends ourselves for almost two decades, we recognize the inimitable power of female friendship not only through life, love, and loss, but as a spur to urge each other to do better. Rose and Lissa believe they can make the world they want to see. We can’t think of a better message to send out into the world.”
The first four episodes of Vampire Academy premiere September 15 on Peacock, with new episodes dropping every Thursday. Watch the trailer below.
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