‘Legacies’ EP Julie Plec Answers All Your Season 2 Questions

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A new school year means a clean slate — even in Mystic Falls. Season 1’s major villains seem to be defeated, and new relationships are starting to bloom.

All, however, is not what it appears: The Salvatore School’s biggest hero, werewolf/vampire/witch tribrid Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell), is gone, and no one knows it. She erased herself from their memories before her sacrificial effort to destroy Malivore, the big bad of The Vampire Diaries/The Originals spinoff.

Legacies exec producer Julie Plec shares her plans for the show’s sophomore year.

Have we seen the last of Malivore, who tried and failed to inhabit the body of his son, Hope’s boyfriend, Landon Kirby (Aria Shahghasemi), and start procreating?

Like Harry Potter‘s Voldemort, this insidious villain will not be so easily thwarted. The writers plan to “keep him alive as a threat,” Plec says, and to have the monsters he unleashed remain a part of the story. “We’ll also have new villains that either want to build on Malivore’s plan or prevent it,” she adds. “None of them will be working in the best interest of our characters.”

Hope dove into the pit of mud that was Malivore, believing she could end him and survive because he was created by the blood of a werewolf, witch, and vampire. What can happen to her there?

Knowing that Landon’s mother got pregnant by Malivore in the pit, Russell herself wanted to rule out that plot twist. “Danielle did ask me, ‘You’re not going to make me pregnant, are you?’ I said, ‘Not yet!'” Plec says with a laugh.

But on a serious note, “Other creatures who have escaped Malivore had terrifying tales of blackness and loneliness,” she says. “What Hope goes through will be 100 times worse than she can imagine. The greater horror will be what a world looks like when nobody remembers she ever existed.”

(Jace Downs/The CW)

How long will it take to bring Hope back and restore people’s memories?

The first chapter of the season revolves around the idea “Are people really happy without her?” Plec says. That includes Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis), who, assuming he does return as headmaster, will be without his protégée. Who will be the first to learn about Hope’s return? “At any point, any character could stumble upon the truth, and that’s gonna be part of the fun,” Plec says. “Do they keep it a secret?”

Will there be any surprising romances?

That you can count on! “What emotional and romantic relationships have changed in the months that have passed?” Plec hints. Season 2 will “lean even further into the romantic entanglements,” she says. Some fans could be upset if the exit of Penelope Park (Lulu Antariksa), the sometime girlfriend of Alaric’s daughter Josie (Kaylee Bryant), leads to a new boyfriend for Josie. “The beauty of being pansexual, which is what we’re exploring in this show, is that the door is open for anybody you find love with,” Plec offers. “So fans will have to sit through both [kinds of relationships] over the course of the series.”

(Quantrell Colbert/The CW)

Besides monsters of the week, any new characters?

We’ll meet more teachers, a new sheriff, and students from Mystic Falls High. “We plan to be spending a lot of time in Mystic Falls as the threat of the monsters opens up [beyond] the walls of the Salvatore School,” Plec says. And keeping the students’ supernatural status a secret will become more difficult.

Legacies, Season 2 Premiere, Thursday, October 10, 9/8c, The CW

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