At this point in time, Julie Plec is pretty much synonymous with vampire on television. From “The Vampire Diaries” to now showing Peacock’s “Vampire Academy,” she’s got a bit of a lock on this particular subgenre of fantasy—but that was never the intention.
“I just, I really believe in working for a living. And I really believe in, you know, my maintenance earnings and I really believe in and maximize my potential, Pleck told TheWrap earlier this year. “And so it turned out to be quite television, without me really even mean to it. I just wanted to, you know, I wanted to say ‘Hey, listen, I appreciate those of you who give me this Hiring to work. And I really want to prove myself again and again in front of you and the audience.’ So it’s a strange birth of an ambition. I didn’t like to conquer the vampire market.”
Of course, that’s what he did anyway. But with “Vampire Academy,” which is now streaming on Peacock, Plec really enjoyed telling a story rooted in human elements rather than the supernatural monsters of all.
“I really appreciated that when we come in, because I love being able to live as a storyteller in a world where there are both good and bad vampires,” she said. “So you can lean heavily into the myths of the demonic, id-driven, wild, blood-sucking demon without having to come up with new and interesting ways to relate to them, or to put them in a redemption arc. For, which is, you know, what I’ve done for the last three shows and, you know, 13 years, so.
She continued, “To me, being able to allow the Moroi to exist as their own species – they don’t live with a lot of external shame. They have all kinds of self-loathing inside them, that’s why That they are so impulsive, but not governed by any sense of pride in who they are. They are not living that kind of pain of being ostracized and being in the shadows, they celebrate instead that they Who are they and what are they. So yeah, it’s like that, you don’t have to keep telling the story of vampires all the time. Because you’re telling a story about love and class and friendship and royal intrigue and all that stuff. And then, you know, sometimes a sharp fang comes out.”
That said, “Vampire Academy” is a little trickier considering it’s an adaptation of a beloved book series. Plec admitted that she gets disappointed in the book adaptation, just how much is left out. Meanwhile, his co-showrunner Marguerite McIntyre can go either way when it comes to the books versus his on-screen adaptations.
McIntyre explained, “I think if there’s an adaptation from something, I’d probably watch the movie and then read it if I liked it, or I’d read about what the adaptation did.” “But I just like to compare, I love to see what people do with stories, I’ve always been fascinated. I mean, read all those Jane Austen books a billion times, a billion ways. done from, [and] are attractive. I love to see how people shake it up and make you think about the main story over and over again. ,
You can watch TheWrap’s full interview with Plec and MacIntyre in the video above.
Vampire Academy is now streaming on Peacock. New episodes premiere on Thursday.