The Vampire Diaries spinoff Legacies was canceled after season 4 and since then, quite a bit has come out about the Legacies season 5 canceled story plans. The second TVD spinoff after The Originals, Legacies was decidedly different in tone and focus. Instead of focusing on adults playing teenagers–or just adults–Legacies‘ cast skewed decidedly younger. The tone was much lighter and campier, with the story revolving around the students of the Salvatore School facing down a multitude of foes in a monster-of-the-week style setup.
Ratings for Legacies continued to drop, however, and in the middle of the Warner Bros.-Discovery merger, the decision was made to cancel it following season 4. Still, that doesn’t mean that there weren’t already plans for Legacies season 5. Since the show’s cancelation, the TVD universe creator, Julie Plec, and multiple Legacies writers have revealed there were indeed concrete ideas for a Legacies season 5 story arc. The plans even included introducing a few long-awaited characters into the Vampire Diaries universe.
Legacies Season 5 Would’ve Had A Time Jump
The Jump Likely Would Have Spanned Years
It would be somewhat odd to pick up right after the events of
Legacies
season 4 when so much has changed.
Legacies season 5 not only would have picked things up where Legacies season 4 left off, but it would also have pushed The Vampire Diaries franchise in a bold new direction. Interestingly, Legacies showrunner Brett Matthews revealed that Legacies season 5 would have involved a time jump:
“We would have been in a time-jump scenario. I think the fun of the fifth season would be to really take those characters, who had reached such a good place in the school, and then move them beyond it and throw them in lives beyond it and seeing where they were and how they would all find their way back to one another.”
While it initially seems surprising, a time jump makes sense when considering the events of Legacies season 4. One longtime cast member in Kaylee Bryant left and others appeared to be on their way out, their stories brought to a neat close. It would be somewhat odd to pick up right after the events of Legacies season 4 when so much has changed. Clearly, the writers smartly realized that picking up Legacies season 5 with a time jump would be the most efficient way to lead into the story.
Season 4’s Finale Had Set Up Legacies Season 5’s Story
Season 5 Could Have Spotlighted Cleo, Landon, And Caroline
Despite coming to a satisfying ending, the season finale of the Vampire Diaries spinoff had quite a bit of setup for a potential Legacies season 5. The season 4 finale saw Jed and Ben, now both free of their “curses,” striking out together. Presumably, Legacies season 5’s story would have found them both grappling without their powers and perhaps learning that what they had viewed as curses were, in fact, gifts.
Legacies season 5 was also set to focus more on Kaleb and Cleo; season 4 hinted that her new powers of clairvoyance as an Oracle would have a larger part to play. The season 4 ending revealed that she’d seen something in the future for her and Kaleb that terrified her, hinting that their future ended in tragedy.
In another part of the universe, Landon’s new role as the Ferryman of Limbo, The Vampire Diaries universe’s version of Purgatory, had plenty of potential for Legacies season 5. His story could have easily wrapped up at the end of season 4. Had the show left him there, it would have been enough. However, it would have been fascinating to see him tackling his new role as the Ferryman, especially as he has traded away some of his human emotions and feelings to save his friends in the world above.
It would have been an incredibly different version of Landon in Legacies season 5 and given the underutilized Aria Shahghasemi a lot to work with.
Lastly, the Legacies series ending threw a curveball at the audience when Alaric Saltzman announced he was leaving the Salvatore School and no longer its headmaster. Instead, his old dear friend and co-parent, TVD‘s Caroline Forbes-Salvatore, was stepping in as the new headmistress. Things would have been very different at the Salvatore School in Legacies season 5, and perhaps a little bit calmer with Caroline at the helm — though probably not for long.
Legacies Season 5 Would’ve Introduced Elena & Damon’s Child
Stephanie Salvatore Implies A Large Time Jump
One of the biggest pulls of Legacies, like all spinoffs of The Vampire Diaries, was the characters and their intermingled bloodlines (a key theme in a show about vampires and immortals of all shapes and sizes). Legacies season 5 was set to both continue this trend and flip it on its head. Arguably, the biggest change would have been the introduction of Stephanie Salvatore, the daughter of The Vampire Diaries‘ Elena and Damon in Legacies season 5. As creator Julie Plec revealed,
“[Stephanie was] very much at the top of our white board as a character that we were planning on introducing, should the show move forward. In my mind, Damon and Elena had kids in our timeline. The way we alluded to her in the genie episode was as though she was 12 or 13. But in the Legacies timeline, their kids were younger, probably toddlers.”
It would appear, then, that the time jump would have been pretty considerable if Stephanie were old enough to attend the Salvatore School. Plec has revealed another Vampire Diaries spinoff is in development after Legacies, and it was meant to stem directly from the events of the recently canceled show. Still, it would have been nice to see the children of other beloved characters in the Legacies season 5 story. If the third spinoff ever does happen, perhaps audiences will meet them after all.
How Can The Legacies Story Continue?
Legacies Could Continue In Another Form
Since there are actual concrete plans for a Legacies season 5 story, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be told in a different medium. A very different teen vampire show decided to continue on their story in the form of a comic, and that show was the iconic Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After Buffy ended in 2003, there was, of course, the spinoff series Angel, but there was also the Buffy comic book series which continued the vampire slayer’s story.
People are always hungry for more Julie Plec content, and there’s no reason that Legacies season 5 couldn’t appear in a different medium. No one was happy when Legacies was canceled, despite its dipping viewership. The series had more avenues it could’ve explored, as evidenced by the Legacies season 5 story plans. Therefore, Vampire Diaries creators could consider putting Legacies to a different medium to appease the masses.
The Vampire Diaries Legacy Creator Didn’t Want It To End Either
Plec Has More Stories She Wants To Tell
When The CW canceled
Legacies
, it ended the 13-year run of
TVD
universe…
Julie Plec, one of the co-creators of The Vampire Diaries, wasn’t too happy there wasn’t a Legacy season 5. When The CW canceled Legacies, it ended the 13-year run of TVD universe and was just the start of the purge of genre shows from the network.
When the cancelation news came, Plec took to Twitter to mourn the loss of the series, calling it the Red Wedding at The CW. That referenced the wedding on Game of Thrones that resulted in the shocking deaths of several characters. She then finished with, “Loads of gratitude coming for fans and cast and crew in future tweets. But today, we mourn.”
Plec had it tough at the time. She was also a producer on the also canceled Roswell, New Mexico, so with The Vampire Diaries universe ending, it meant Plec’s footprint on The CW disappeared.
Luckily for Plec, she picked up a new deal on Peacock to adapt the Vampire Academy series of books into a series, so she was able to slide back into familiar territory. However, for fans of The Vampire Diaries, the chance to see Legacies season 5 died with The CW’s decision, and sadly, the question of “will there be a season 5 of Legacies” dropped with a resounding no.
Why Legacies Was Canceled Before Season 5
Viewership And Changes At The CW Led To Cancelation
The CW has never been a network that garnered incredibly high ratings for its series compared to broadcast networks like ABC or NBC. The shows on the network have always had considerably smaller audiences, but as those audiences dwindle even further, that can contribute to the decision to cancel a series – especially if there aren’t lucrative international streaming deals in place for a series.
According to ratings numbers compiled by sites like TV By The Numbers, Legacies averaged about one million viewers per episode in the first season. By its final season, it was averaging less than half of that. That’s a significant drop for a CW series in less than four seasons. For comparison, Riverdale averaged just over one million viewers for its first four seasons. In addition to those watching live, the series also had next-day streaming deals internationally on Netflix, making it more profitable to keep around. When Riverdale ended in season 7, its ratings were similar to Legacies season 4.
Of course, ratings likely aren’t the only reason Legacies was canceled. Many scripted dramas saw cancelations at the CW around the same time. The CW has drastically restructured their schedule compared to their former slate. While the network was once known as the go-to channel for primetime dramas aimed at young adults, it has moved away from that to air more reality television and Canadian dramas that have already aired in the other country. It’s a less expensive lineup for the network.
What The Future Of The Vampire Diaries Universe Looks Like
The Future Of The Vampire Diaries Universe Is Currently Unknown
Julie Plec has gone on the record multiple times about being interested in setting another series in the same universe as The Vampire Diaries. She’s said in the past that there is at least one more story she wants to tell, though she’s never said which character or characters she wants to feature in another series.
Right now, however, it seems like there aren’t any more Vampire Diaries stories on the horizon. With all of the shows having aired on the CW, and the network not being especially interested in adding more young adult dramas to its lineup, it seems unlikely they would greenlight another series in the universe. Of course, even if the network has moved on from the franchise, it’s always possible Plec could find a home for another show on streaming.
Julie Plec is currently one of the executive producers on another young adult adaptation, We Were Liars, alongside Carina Adly Mackenzie, who worked with Plec on The Originals and Roswell, New Mexico. The series will stream on Amazon. With that on the way, there might not be another series in development just yet anyway.
Would The Season 5 Plans Have Been Good Or Bad For The Show?
Season 5 Likely Would Have Helped Ground The Show
One of the biggest complaints about Legacies is that it seemed to move too far away from its roots in The Vampire Diaries universe. Despite being set in Mystic Falls and featuring a handful of characters from The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, the show focused on the more fantastic elements of the universe, exploring alternate universes, for example. As a result, it moved away from the core stories of vampires and werewolves that so many of the fans loved.
Bringing Caroline on as the headmistress of the Salvatore school and bringing in the very human daughter of Damon and Elena into the fold might have been able to ground the show in what fans loved about it at the beginning. It would have helped to continue to expand the show while still returning it to its roots. Season 5 of Legacies likely would have fared very well with fans.
