Calling all fans of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals: Hope Mikaelson is back and ready to take on the world of supernatural chaos once again — in boarding school. Crafted by the mastermind herself, Julie Plec’s much-anticipated Legacies is a teen drama filled with plenty of mind-controlling vampires, hot-headed werewolves, and vengeful witches. Of course, there’s no shortage of teenage hormones, temper tantrums, or evil villains, either.
“If Vampire Diaries was about love and The Originals is about family, this is a show about friendship,” Plec tells Teen Vogue. “[It’s] about growing up and those friendships and how they shift and change. These kids all have a curse, a plague, something that’s afflicting them, that’s making them others and, yet, they all want to be the heroes of the story.”
Set two years post-The Originals finale, the newest series in Plec’s mystical universe delves into the drama-filled world of the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted. In addition to a now 17-year-old Hope, who is still dealing with the trauma of losing her parents (the beloved Klaus and Hayley), fans will be introduced to a host of different supernatural beings, including the spellcasting Saltzman twins, a newly transformed werewolf, and plenty of baby vamps thirsting for blood.
While Legacies features a younger class of teens, you best not underestimate the new series set inside an interconnected supernatural world that has garnered millions of fans.
“So many things make Legacies different than The Originals,” Danielle Rose Russell, who plays Hope, tells Teen Vogue. “Legacies has a sense of humor and I think that’s one of the biggest things that separates this show from the two shows proceeding it.”
What really makes this spinoff unique from its predecessors is the introduction of monsters into the supernatural world. According to Plec, these creatures fall outside the traditional TVD world of vampires, witches, and werewolves. Although not much has been said, Danielle hints that these monsters give Legacies the ability to stand on its own as a show and brings a fresh perspective to the world of things that go bump in the night.