It seems the legacy of vampire lore is undeniable—just as Vampire Diaries spin off The Originals wraps, a second spin-off called Legacies will premiere this autumn.
What is Legacies?
Continuing the story of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, the show follows the next generation of supernaturals as they attend The Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted in the town of Mystic Falls.
Legacies will pick up two years after The Originals finale [to save from spoilers, those seeking a refresher can divert to a recap here].
The general public thinks that Salvatore is a boarding school for troubled rich kids, unaware that it houses supernatural teens learning to harness their powers and impulses (essentially X-Men in the world of TVD and The Originals). While tension escalates between mortals and immortals, Hope and her friends deal with bullies, mean girls, and supernatural threats arriving an all-new ‘monster-of-the-week’ format. Creators hope adopting this structure this will bring a more procedural element to the show.
Here’s the official synopsis:
“Legacies: A spinoff of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals from Julie Plec, this is the story of the next generation of supernatural beings at The Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. Attending the school? Klaus and Hayley’s daughter Hope Mikaelson, Alaric Saltzman’s twins, Lizzie and Josie, and other young adults. Will these young witches, vampires and werewolves become the heroes they want to be—or the villains they were born to be?”
Who plays the lead in the Vampire Diaries Spin Off?
Back with the lead role is season five Originals star, Danielle Rose Russell. She is known for her roles in Aloha, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Wonder, as well as Originals character Hope Mikaelson.
Legacies will centre around seventeen-year-old Hope. She is a “tribrid”, meaning she has blood from the most powerful vampire, werewolf, and witch bloodlines. She is the first of her kind, which makes her powers extra challenging to harness.
Danielle shares her excitement for the show to premiere in a sneak peek on twitter:
first sneak peek of @cwlegacies…so excited omg 🙊 pic.twitter.com/22RcumbA3q
— Danielle Rose Russell (@itsdanielleruss) August 6, 2018
Who else is returning?
Hope will be joined by occult expert Alaric Salesman (Matt Davies) and his twin daughters Josie (Kayla Bryant) and Lizzie Saltzman (Jenny Boyd), who are fellow pupils of Salvatore. Townie Landon Kirby (Aria Shahghasemi) will also be back, and we hear hope might have a thing for him.
Legacies creator Julie Plec (co-creator of both The Originals and TVD) also confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con that TVD characters Sheriff Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig) and Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen) will guest star in the pilot and third episode, respectively.
Additionally, Caroline Forbes (Candice King) will be back to assist Salvatore’s headmaster. Caroline had bid Klaus farewell in the finale and Plec explains that “Caroline’s got her own stuff to deal with; she’s got daughters who need her and a school he’s running.”
But Plec also dangles a carrot: “There’s an episode where she doesn’t come home for something she should come home for, which opens the door to a mystery about why she’s been gone.”
It seems Plec also has an open-door policy when it comes to returning talent. During an interview with Variety, she said:
“If anybody wants to come, I will find a way to make that work. I would love to see Vincent (Yusuf Gatewood) come teach some classes, or Auntie Freya (Riley Voelkel) show up for parent-teacher weekend. Rebekah (Claire Holt) sneaking Hope out of school for a fun getaway — all that stuff is stuff I would love to see so it’s really just a matter of, at what point do these guys feel like paying homage to these characters and revisiting a character that they’ve already put to bed.”
Who will be joining them?
While speculation builds about other returning characters and potential cameos (it is an originals and vampire diaries spin off after all – we would hope to see most of the original cast appearing at some point), there are also new faces to be excited about. Among them are a hot werewolf with Anger issues name Rafael (Peyton Alex Smith) and a new vampire named M.G. (Quincy Fouse).
When and where to watch?
The Vampire Diaries spin off will be airing in the United States on October 25th, sliding into the CW’s Thursdays 9/8c slot just in time for Halloween.
There is no UK broadcaster as of yet but The Originals became available on Netflix following broadcast in the U.S, so hopefully we will see them pick up the rights to Legacies in the UK. Another option is ITV picking up the rights to the show. They originally aired the Vampire Diaries in the UK, but since they didn’t pick up the The Originals we doubt they will pick up the Vampire Diaries spin off series.
Check out the trailer that dropped at Comic-Con here: