This One Season Peacock Series Was Cancelled Too Soon (But Is a Must Watch for Vampire Fans)

Vampire stories have long been entertainment gold. There’s just something about stories involving the blood drinking undead that speaks to audiences and that is especially true when those audiences are of the young adult variety. The Twilight franchise, based on Stephenie Meyer’s young adult novel series, was a massive hit, but it wasn’t just the big screen that sees the vampires come out to play. Television also has its fair share, particularly in the late 2000s with the arrival of The CW’s The Vampire Diaries. The series was one of the network’s most popular, but when it ended in 2017, it left a little bit of a void. Fortunately for fans, there’s an underrated Peacock series that may have only had one season but is a must-watch for fans seeking more teen vampire drama.

Vampire Academy debuted on Peacock in 2022. The second adaptation of Richelle Mead’s novel series of the same name, the series was created by former The Vampire Diaries co-creator Julie Plec and former The Vampire Diaries star Marguerite MacIntyre to bring a completely different world of vampires, one divided by class as well as “good” and “evil” vampire groups. There’s magic, royalty and intrigue and while the series was sadly cancelled after just one season, it’s still a must-watch.

Read Next

Dexter: Resurrection Season 2 Officially Announced by Michael C. Hall

Vampire Academy Feels Like Bridgerton Meets Bloodsuckers in the Best Way

Vampire Academy follows two friends, Lissa (Daniela Nieves) and Rose (Sisi Stringer), two young women who are born into the complex world of vampires and attend an exclusive academy but there’s a twist. Lissa is a Moroi vampire, one of the “good” vampires and is also descended from one of the great vampire royal houses while Rose is a dhampir — half vampire, half human. While Lissa is there to be educated as part of vampire society and magic, Rose is there to train in combat to be a guardian tasks with the protection of the Moroi against the “evil” vampires, the Strigoi who have lost all humanity and are a threat to society.

Social hierarchy is at the core of Vampire Academy, something that gives the otherwise high school-set story a bit of a twist. There is a lot of social scheming going on as well as politics running alongside the tale of friendship and romance (because, after all, what would a high school vampire drama be without romance?) But the high stakes of the Moroi versus Strigoi tensions, coupled with some surprising mysteries — including one about Rose’s father — makes for a story that is both gorgeous visually and exciting for viewers.

Vampire Academy Was Cancelled Too Soon, But Still Deserves a Watch

While Vampire Academy was generally well-received, the series unfortunately didn’t last. Peacock cancelled the series after just one season, possibly a victim of just bad timing. Peacock was still a “new” streaming platform around the time Vampire Academy debuted and it hadn’t really caught on, which resulted in lower viewership for series such as Vampire Academy. As Plec put it after the show’s demise, they didn’t have the parent audience needed to bring in the teens, who were the target demographic for Vampire Academy.

Despite being so short-lived, Vampire Academy is still worth bingeing largely for how the series works as a unique take on vampire fiction. While most vampire stories tend focus in on more personal stories and interpersonal drama with vampires — series like AMC’s adaptation of Interview With the Vampire comes to mind — Vampire Academy has a much more fleshed out larger world. The series is as much about the larger society that Lissa, Rose, and the rest of the characters inhabit and its various rules and structures as it is about relationships. There’s a sense of community and culture within Vampire Academy that other vampire stories lack. The series also takes a more Game of Thrones turn by introducing political scheming and power struggles later in its first season which further makes the series more complex than other vampire-themed offerings. There’s really nothing else quite like it, which makes it a shame that it only got the one season.

Vampire Academy is streaming on Peacock.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!