:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/vicious-040226-2-214ca2f15a1d4df4be26240c20de391e.jpg "V. E. Schwab closes her Villains era: Inside Victorious, the Hannibal inspo, and 'countdown to th...")
The bestselling fantasy author gives the scoop on the next and final &34;Villains&34; story. V. E. Schwab closes her Villains era: Inside Victorious, the Hannibal inspo, and 'countdown to the end' (exclusive) The bestselling fantasy author gives the scoop on the next and final &34;Villains&34; story. By Nick Romano :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/NicholasRomanoauthorphotoadc9b60763e34711935cbf7b3d768d24.jpg) Nick Romano Nick Romano is a senior editor at with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.
The best-selling fantasy author gives the scoop on the next and final "Villains" story.
V. E. Schwab closes her Villains era: Inside Victorious, the Hannibal inspo, and 'countdown to the end' (exclusive)
The best-selling fantasy author gives the scoop on the next and final "Villains" story.
By Nick Romano
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Nicholas-Romano-author-photo-adc9b60763e34711935cbf7b3d768d24.jpg)
Nick Romano
Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.
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April 3, 2026 12:00 p.m. ET
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Cover art for 'Victorious,' by V. E. Schwab. Credit:
- V.E. Schwab gives ** the scoop on *Victorious*, the finale to her *Villains* trilogy.
- Schwab's "loadstar" for Book 3 is Hannibal, the TV series: "I think readers will be stifled but also delighted by some of that in *Victorious*."
- When it comes to the braided timeline, she says, "This one is counting down to the end."
Thirteen years ago, before she became a *New York Times* best-selling author in the fantasy space, V. E. Schwab was on the verge of leaving publishing altogether. She wrote three young-adult books but wasn't encouraged by the response from the gatekeepers in the industry. It was a constant feeling of falling short, never being good enough.
Out of this period came *Vicious* (2013), her first adult novel that introduced a world of EOs, individuals with extraordinary abilities — her unique spin on the superhero genre. "I felt extremely othered," Schwab tells **. "I hadn't come out yet, I just felt like a mimic in society, and I had these really toxic friendships, like romance without the sex, where it was just this concept of obsession."
That feeling is reflected in the characters of that novel. Victor Vale and Eli Cardale, two ambitious fast friends at Lockland University, make a breakthrough discovery: Those who endure near-death experiences could, under the right conditions, develop powers, each uniquely catered to the individual's specific circumstances.
For Eli, who takes the new name of Eli Ever, he attains the power of regeneration but sets out on a religious mission from God to wipe out all EOs from the world. Victor, meanwhile, acquires mastery over pain — the power to give it and take it away on command. As the years progressed and Schwab's notoriety only grew with the publication of separate books, like the wildly popular *Darker Shades of Magic* series, this cat-and-mouse game between Victor and Eli spiraled into a sequel, *Vengeful* (2018).
And now, in 2026, Schwab returns to the world that truly launched her career in literary fantasy. *Victorious*, out Oct. 6, marks the conclusion to what is now known as her *Villains* trilogy. (Read the exclusive first excerpt on EW.)
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V. E. Schwab author photo.
"I have this control over my career, over so much that I didn't have when I wrote *Vicious*. I came from a place of spite on that one," the author reflects. "Now looking back, writing a book that is so much about the arc of these characters, but also the arc of me as a creative and as someone who has scaled the steps that are on the cover of *Victorious*, I just feel like I'm in a completely different place."
For the writer who says she likes to "play God" — meaning, she prefers to know everything about her characters before writing a story — it should come as no surprise that she always saw *Villains* as a trilogy right from the start of *Vicious*. She'd just been burned before: Her previous YA trilogy, *The Archived*, was discontinued two books in, and on a cliffhanger! Schwab feared putting readers in a similar position again. So she kept her plans to herself…until now.
See the starry cover for V.E. Schwab's 'The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue'
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V.E. Schwab on the 'defiant joy' of her epic novel 'The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue'
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"I've always thought of it as three installments. I think when we say 'trilogy,' it gives a really specific structural expectation. I wanted each book to stand in its own light and to do its own thing," the scribe says. "I had a vision for how it would end, I had a vision for who would be left standing and what the situation would be. It was just a matter of, 'How do I want to get from where I ended *Vengeful* to that moment?'"
In terms of that ending, Eli is finally dead, killed by Victor's surrogate daughter Sydney (with the power of resurrection) after he was injected with a serum that suppresses an EO's abilities. Victor left his found family, including his hacker right-hand man Mitch, behind to deal with his lingering condition; ever since Sydney brought him back from the dead in Book 1, his powers have been glitching and causing him tremendous pain. His only solace is the same serum that led to Eli's downfall, but supply is dwindling.
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'Vengeful' cover art.
They're all left wayward, no longer with a core mission (hunting Eli) driving their every move. The same goes for June, the shape-shifting human voodoo doll and hitwoman who became a swift fan favorite in Book 2.
"A lot of [*Victorious*] opens in the first chapters on the concept of aftermath, specifically what happens when you no longer have a purpose," Schwab explains. "Everyone is a little bit adrift. They're still in a purgatory. They're still hiding. They're not living normally."
From here, plot details are few and far between. That's by design. There's a mysterious new leader of EON (ExtraOrdinary Observation and Neutralization), according to a cryptic summary. The secret government organization, tasked with monitoring and containing the EO threat, has "a terrifying agenda" that brings out core heroes, villains, and allies into the lion's lair for the ultimate confrontation.
Like the previous two installments, *Victorious* is told through a braided timeline with a ticking clock looming overhead. The perspective varies between characters and periods over the two years since the events of *Vengeful*. As Schwab warns, "This one is counting down to the end."
The author typically follows one loadstar with each book. For *Vicious*, it was the anime *Cowboy Bebop*. For *Vengeful*, it was *Killing Eve*, starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer. Now for *Victorious*, it's *Hannibal*, the TV series.
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Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen on 'Hannibal' season 2. NBC
Arguably, there's always been an undercurrent of sexual tension between Victor and Eli in their fight to kill each other. The same goes for the two leads of NBC's Mads Mikkelsen- and Hugh Dancy-fronted serial killer drama, which took things from subtext to text by the final season.
"I think readers will be stifled but also delighted by some of that in *Victorious*," Schwab says. "Similarly to *Hannibal*'s third season, they knew they were being canceled and they were just like, 'We're gonna do what we want.' I kind of feel like this was a return to me being like, 'This is what I want.' Each book is gonna fulfill a different desire or a different urge."
Does this mean Eli is definitely coming back from the dead? Schwab isn't going to spoil her own work, not before pre-orders are fulfilled, but she will say, "When has anyone in this series ever stayed dead?"
There are plenty more pressing questions to be answered. Who is the mysterious figure gracing the *Victorious* cover along with Victor, Sydney, and resurrected dog Dol? "It's really gonna be up to the reader to argue for who that figure is," Schwab teases.
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'Victorious' cover.
No spoilers, but there will be a new character introduced with a power set Schwab likens to Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff on Marvel series *WandaVision*. She describes it as "an imposition of a new reality surrounding them at all times." It's her favorite new power but the hardest to write.
"Having to show from a third-person narration that character's concept of reality stumbles and resets would've been so easy on television," she quips.
Reality appears to be the key to the entire story she's telling. The book opens with quote on that subject from Albert Einstein: "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
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"If you look at these three books, I'm so fascinated by the way any author who writes a lot of books, their books really do become milestone markers," Schwab continues. "I can measure my age by my books."
It's why she feels there's an autobiographical element to Villains. Victor and Eli are named after her own name, Victoria Elizabeth Schwab. And now *Victorious* sounds an awful lot like her first name. "Book 3," she says, "is a book about psychology. It's about control, it's about the illusion of control, and it's about our own perception of our own reality."
Read the exclusive first excerpt on EW.
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Published: April 3, 2026 at 12:57PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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