Yahoo News Vampire Academy bosses break down the season 1 finale, preview potential season 2
Warning: This post contains spoilers from the Vampire Academy season 1 finale.
Vampire Academy didn't hold anything back in its season 1 finale. As Tatiana (Anita-Joy Uwajeh) and the Strigoi attacked, the Queen (Pik-Sem Lim) was poisoned, and Lissa (Daniela Nieves) was reunited with Andre (Jason Diaz), only to watch Christian's (Andre Dae Kim) mother rip into his neck. (He's a Strigoi now!) Then there was Sonya (Jonetta Kaiser), who attacked her father Victor (J. August Richards). Finally, the hour ended with Rose (Sisi Stringer) and Lissa heading out into the human world (and Tatiana now blaming Lissa for the Queen's death). And that's not even everything!
EW spoke with co-creators Julie Plec and Marguerite MacIntrye about some of the biggest book-to-screen changes they made in season 1 and where the story might go in a potential season 2. (Vampire Academy hasn't been renewed just yet.)
Jose Haro/Peacock Daniela Nieves and Mia McKenna-Bruce in 'Vampire Academy'
Andre is a Strigoi?!
Lissa's reunion with her thought-to-be-dead brother was short-lived. Seconds after they hugged, he was attacked, and by episode's end, he woke up Strigoi. "One of the big questions I always had when I read the books was: Who's in charge? Who's mobilizing these Strigoi? Who's teaching them how to be more strategic," Plec says. "We knew that we wanted our Strigoi to be much more feral and primal and much less human than the ones in the books, just for stakes, but we also knew that part of our plot was that someone was organizing them. The thought that the enemy of the show could come under one ruler and what better ruler could that be than perhaps someone who was born and raised and bred to be king? It was too juicy to pass up."
Tatiana's evil turn
One of the biggest reveals of episode 9 was that Tatiana had been behind, not only Lissa's family's car accident, but all of the Strigoi's recent plans. "In deepening Andre's story, it ended up starting to be clearer what Tatiana's path would be," MacIntyre says. "And then we had a lot of choices about what her background would be and the why of it all. As we proceeded and really locked into the path that we wanted to do, that's when we said: This woman can be strong, fierce, very political, wants what she wants, and we'll grow and grow to know more and more about her and still she's a complete mystery. That's a fun villain to have. There's a lot of people who wear their heart on their sleeve in this show so there is something fun about having somebody who's genuinely mysterious who then we can peel the layer back on next season and she's still serving the purpose of: Someone who would be queen who maybe isn't the best choice for the job."
Jose Haro/Peacock Anita-Joy Uwajeh in 'Vampire Academy'
Season 2
Although season 1 pulled from many of Richelle Mead's six books, there's still plenty more material for a second season. "We're still pulling from the books in different ways," MacIntyre says. "If we do some of the things we've discussed, we're deepening and expanding some of the worlds that are touched on in the books. Like, what do the Communes actually look like in this world? We're expanding on stuff that was touched on in the books. Then there's a little bit of new stuff we have planned."
Plec adds, "The second book largely takes place at a school ski trip, which would perhaps be an episode or two and can't really be a whole season, so that instantly opens up our ability to take more license with the different elements from all the books. We ended season 1 where book one began and that is so exciting to me that we now get to tell the story of the girls out in the human world, and that could last one episode or it could last 8 episodes."
However, MacIntyre does want to assure fans that, "If you loved it in the book series, it will come. We just don't know when it will come."
Jose Haro/Peacock André Dae Kim and Sisi Stringer in 'Vampire Academy'
The Alchemists
The finale heard Dimitri (Kieron Moore) issue a warning to Rose about the alchemists, something that could certainly come up again in a potential second season. "The girls are heading out into the real human world and we know so little about it," Plec says. "We know that there is a human treaty; we know that there are these alchemists who show up and erase evidence of vampire crimes; we know that Dimitri has said, 'If you see one, run.' There's so much great opportunity there to use our girls as the window into teeing up more about how the history of this dominion came to be in the first place and what the threat of the human world is. They're going to be walking blindly into it."
Victor's fate
No, you're not supposed to know if Victor's still alive by finale's end. "I like the idea of ending a season in a question mark for everyone," MacIntyre says. "That's the state I want to leave our beautiful fans in. But I will say we love J. August and we love Victor."
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