Described by the author as "Killing Eve meets Buffy," First Kill is an upcoming Netflix Original adaptation directed by Jet Wilkinson, known for Jessica Jones, The Punisher, and Warrior Nun. Wilkinson is also currently working on the live-action remake of the Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender. American Horror Story star Emma Roberts and the producer of the American drama film Holler, Karah Preiss, produced the series through their offshoot production company, Belleterist Production. It’s based on Victoria Schwab’s short story of the same name published in the anthology Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite, which came out in 2020.
It’s no secret that Roberts is an avid reader, and her love for books led her to found Belletrist with her friend Preiss. Originally a subscription-based book club focusing on talented fiction authors often overlooked by mainstream media, they added a production segment to their company. Belletrist has another adaptation for Hulu based on the bestselling Carola Lovering thriller Tell Me Lies currently underway. Roberts got fans excited about First Kill, even though she decided not to act in the series herself.
In an interview with Tatler, she said:
"I knew there was no role for me in the show, but I also knew I would love to develop it. VE Schwab wrote the pilot, and we developed the series and sold it to Netflix. The story is so fresh and fun."
Here’s everything we know about First Kill it so far.
Plot
Juliett is ready to make her first kill and establish herself as a member of an influential vampire family. The perfect victim, a girl named Calliope, moves into her town at just the right time to give Juliett a chance to impress her elders. But Calliope is no fragile damsel in distress. She happens to be a vampire hunter from a line of celebrated slayers, and she can surely fend for herself. As their paths cross, they realise they would much rather make out than try to kill each other. However, their families are hungry for blood.
Also known as V.E. Schwab by her adult readers, the sci-fi/fantasy/horror author talked to Washington Magazine about the importance of gender identity and sexuality in her writing, saying:
"From an LGBTQ+ perspective, I desperately wanted to write casual queerness. As a gay person who came out in her twenties, I didn’t need a coming out story. I needed to see characters like me simply taking up the space we do in life, always informed by our gender and sexuality, but not always defined by it, and never reduced to it."
Having published over 20 novels to date, Schwab had previously sold rights to a film adaptation of her book Vicious to Ridley Scott’s production company in 2013.
Cast
Sarah Catherine Hook, who recently appeared as Debbie in The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It and as Lewinsky’s friend Cat in the latest season of American Crime Story has been cast in the lead role of teenage vampire Juliette. Her arch-nemesis and love object, Calliope, is played by Imani Lewis, whom you may recognise as Charmaine from the Starz crime show Hightown or Elaine from the awarded Netflix dramedy The Forty-Year-Old Version.
The members of the Fairmont vampire dynasty will include Margot, portrayed by Elizabeth Mitchell, known for her role as Dr. Juliet Burke in Lost, musical theatre actor Will Swenson as Sebastian, CBS Zoo’s Gracie Dzienny as Elinor, and 2019 Ambition’s Dylan McNamara as Oliver. In the enemy camp of vampire hunters, we will see Aubin Wise from Dimland as Talia, The Punisher’s Jason Robert Moore as Jack, Dominic Goodman from He’s All That as Apollo, and Phillip Mullings Jr., who was cast in Tyler Perry’s comedy series Bruh, in the role of Theo. There will be a few acting novices -- MK xyz, Jonas Dylan Allen, and Roberto Mendez.
Elizabeth Mitchell revealed in an interview with The Pop Culture Principle:
"So, First Kill was super fun. I play a 500-year-old vampire named Margo, and she has this amazing husband named Sebastian, played by Will Swenson, who is a Broadway actor. So, there are the vampires and the hunters, and it’s a bit like Romeo and Juliet, but it’s more Juliet and Juliet. It’s the two families that are pitted against each other. Aubin Wise is kind of my counterpart. She is in Hamilton right now on Broadway, and she brought it and Will brought it. Even just being around these amazing actors was an absolute pleasure. It was so much fun!"
Release date
The series is currently in the post-production stage as its filming had reportedly wrapped in August 2021. There will be eight one-hour-long episodes set to air this year on Netflix, and it is not yet clear whether more than one season is planned. This might depend on the show’s success. It will compete with two more vampire adaptations premiering later this year -- Peacock's Vampire Academy and AMC's Interview with the Vampire, based on Anne Rice’s cult saga, The Vampire Chronicles, which provided the basis for the popular 1994 Brad Pitt film and Queen of the Damned. We will let you know as soon as the first official trailer for First Kill has been released, so stay tuned!