Legacies’ True Competition Is The Vampire Diaries Creator’s New Show

The CW’s The Vampire Diaries spinoff show Legacies has been successful thus far, with little other competition in the ring– but that could change when TVD’s creator comes out with Vampire Academy later this year. Legacies began its run back in 2018 after the success of The Vampire Diaries‘ first spinoff show, The Originals. It picks up right where The Originals left off with the character of Hope Mikaelson attending the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. The “magical/special school” trope isn’t unfamiliar to audiences, with successful franchises like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. That being said, there hasn’t been a lot of competition when it comes to television shows of the same genre in recent years, especially not vampire-centric.

With Legacies’ star Kaylee Bryant’s exit from the series, viewers are wondering if Hope’s (Danielle Rose Russell) hero-turned-villain arc is marking the end of another story in The Vampire Diaries universe. While fans have welcomed the changes made in season 4, this season’s tone had felt much more reminiscent of its predecessors than the previous seasons. As of now, Legacies hasn’t been canceled or renewed for a fifth season. That said, with its relatively solid ratings and fanbase it’s unlikely that the Legacies series will be over any time soon.

However, Vampire Diaries TV universe creator/showrunner Julie Plec’s new show Vampire Academy will likely end up being Legacies’ biggest competition. The new show is based on a series of YA supernatural romance novels by author Richelle Mead. In May of 2021, Peacock announced a straight-to-series order of Vampire Academy with Julie Plec overseeing the series’ development. Vampire Academy follows Rose Hathaway who is training at St. Vladamir’s Academy to hone her powers as a dhampir, vampire-human hybrids who act as bodyguards for the Moroi, vampire royalty. Considering that both Legacies and Vampire Academy are both about supernatural schools, as well as the immense popularity of the Vampire Academy books, Julie Plec’s new show will give Legacies some real competition.

Before Vampire Academy was greenlit as a TV show, the book series had other adaptations. In 2014, a movie based on the first book starring Zooey Deutch and Lucy Fry was released. The film was a box office bomb due to it failing to adequately build up the world and its interesting lore, and the sequel Frostbite was subsequently scrapped. However, while regarded as criminally underrated upon its release but has since gained a cult following. There is also a graphic novel adaptation of the first two books that came out in 2012. Given that series creator Julie Plec has six books to work with, her rendition of Vampire Academy may outrun Legacies;, in the meantime creating a competitive edge for both shows.

Vampire Academy is set to release sometime later this year, but a concrete date has not been confirmed. Even when it does, The Vampire Diaries’ connection to Legacies has created a loyal fanbase for the franchise. With TVD creator Julie Plec at the helm of the new show, the best-case scenario is that the shows will significantly differentiate themselves and end up with both enjoying strong viewership from old TVD fans coming to VA for the first time.

Legacies season 4 returns Thursday, February 24 on The CW.

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