Based on the acclaimed 2022 novel by Julia May Jonas, who served as creator, executive producer, and writer for the series, Vladimir centers on a 50-something college English professor (played by Rachel Weisz) who becomes obsessed with her department's hot new hire: the handsome and celebrated young novelist Vladimir Vladinski (Leo Woodall). The title Vladimir is widely considered to be a reference to Loilta author Vladimir Nabokov, a theory Jonas all but confirmed in an interview with Netflix's Tudum. "It’s a nod to novels that name themselves after the young woman who the man is obsessed with," she said. "This is the subject of fixation that we’re going to be talking about, and I wanted to flip the script and have it be coming from a woman’s perspective."