Supernatural forces may be at work in Mystic Falls, but here in the real world, none of that TV magic was strong enough to stop the global pandemic from shutting down (among other, more important things) Season 2 of the CW’s Legacies. Variety reported back in March that Legacies couldn’t finish shooting its second season as planned and therefore made Episode 16 the “spring finale,” leaving four whole episodes unshot and unaired.
The CW announced that Season 3 will begin airing in January of 2021 if, that is, there are no further delays in production. The network’s president said on a press call that they’re taking “an optimistic view at the moment,” and according to Deadline, Legacies will return on Thursdays at 9 p.m. The show is scheduled to resume shooting in mid-October, according to TV Guide.
Update: A rep from the CW tells us the remaining four episodes of Season 2 will be counted as Season 3.
Earlier: What we don’t know, though, is whether or not those four remaining episodes of Season 2 will somehow be officially incorporated into Season 3, or if they’ll still be considered part of Season 2.
Creator Julie Plec even seemed unsure of what the plan was when she took to Twitter in March to discuss the shutdown, but made assumptions about the episodes remaining as part of Season 2. (For the purposes of this article, we’re going to treat the last four episodes as part of Season 2.)
We do know, however (thanks again to Plec’s Twitter) that at least one of those four will be filmed.
Last we saw in Season 2, Dark Josie (Kaylee Bryant) had been vanquished, Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) and Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) were mysteriously both stuck in magical comas, and the Necromancer had acquired new major amounts of dark magic.
So — knowing that we’ve got four episodes hanging, and a Season 3 premiere date in January — where do we go from here?
The Musical Episode Will Be A Blast From The Past
Episode 19 was supposed to be the series’ big musical episode, but seeing as the season was cut off at Episode 16, they wouldn’t just not do the beloved musical episode, right? Right. Upon the sudden end to the season, Plec assured fans on Twitter that the musical episode is 100% still happening.
"We try to do a musical a year, and it's a musical that will sort of revisit our legacies — the legacy of the show, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals universe," said executive producer Brett Matthews in this TV Guide article. Last year, the musical episode revolved around the school talent show (and is one of Season 1’s best); this Season 2 musical episode sounds even more legendary.
It begs the question, though: If the musical episode will be all about the show’s predecessors, does that mean some Vampire Diaries and Originals cast members might be making an appearance?
There’s A Good Chance We’ll See Some Familiar Faces
If Plec or Matthews have commitments from any past stars to appear in this episode (or any of the other upcoming episodes), they’re certainly keeping it under wraps, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. So far, the big returns have been Chris Wood as Kai Parker and Riley Voelkel as Freya Mikaelson in Season 2, along with a guest star from Jodie Lyn O’Keefe as Jo, and some cameos from Zach Roerig as Matt Donovan, and Steven R. McQueen as Jeremy Gilbert in Season 1.
Wood is unlikely to return to the show given that his character is dead and he’s already come back from hell once. Plec mentioned on Twitter that Wood said he would love to continue guest starring...after the show chopped his character’s head off, so there are no current plans to bring him back. Some other characters, however, have a higher probability of making a reappearance, chief among them, Candice King as Caroline Forbes.
As Josie and Lizzie’s (Jenny Boyd) mom, not to mention a founder of the Salvatore School, it’s a big hole in the story that Caroline isn’t around. The excuse has been that she’s traveling the world, looking for a magical out from her daughters’ obligation to merge (as all Gemini Coven twins eventually must) but that excuse is wearing thin.
All we’re waiting for is for King to agree to appear on the series — she could easily fit into the show at any point, whether just as a guest star or on a more permanent basis. According to her IMDB page, she has one movie coming out in October 2020, and other than that, she seems free?
The other two characters most likely to show up, at least story-wise, are Marcel Gerard (Charles Michael Davis) and/or his romantic partner Rebecca Mikaelson (Claire Holt). In the final season of The Originals, we see that Marcel is like a father-figure to Hope, so it would make sense, if not expected of him, to drop in on her, even just to say hi.
Rebecca, meanwhile, is Hope’s aunt and one of the last family members that Hope has left, so both of these characters could very well show up at some point in the near future.
Hope And Landon Won’t Stay Asleep For Long
At the end of Season 2, Episode 16, Hope and Landon are both mysteriously stuck asleep, and we’re not sure why. While Hope spent the episode traversing through Josie’s mind and helping her defeat the darkness within her, she should’ve woken up at the end of it like Josie did, but… she didn’t.
Landon, meanwhile, was killed by the golden arrow that the sphinx foretold. However, since Alaric made a deal with the Necromancer (Ben Geurens) to bring Landon back to life, he should’ve woken up by now, but… he hasn’t. Raphael (Peyton Alex Smith), who was a zombie enslaved to the Necromancer, has notably been set free, which was also part of the deal.
Even though the couple were afflicted by such different magical circumstances, it does seem like they must be magically linked somehow. It could have something to do with the sphinx riddle, since the last line was about how “love destroys.” (Most of the sphinx riddle has already come true, we’re really just waiting on that last line, which is… ominous.)
It would make sense if the last line of the riddle is going to have a much bigger payoff closer to the end of Season 2, but I do think that Landon and Hope being romantically linked has somehow, something to do with their current predicament.
Paradise Salazar, who, under the name Destiny Stromberg, is an admin for the Facebook fan group The Vampire Diaries / The Originals / Legacies, which boasts over 91,000 members, believes that Hope got something wrong with the potion she used on Josie. “I think the spell was a twisted one and she might have gotten some wires crossed and also her emotions might have something to do with it. Given that, Landon is in love with her, so maybe it took him too,” says Salazar.
Bryanna Prochnow, who runs the Twitter fan account Legacies Confessions, thinks that “Hope is stuck asleep because she never got to properly leave Josie’s subconscious,” and points out that the last time we saw Hope, she was turned to stone by Dark Josie. “It’s going to be interesting to see how long it takes for Josie to realize that Hope is in her head.”
As for Landon, some fans think that the reason Landon hasn’t woken up is because the Necromancer reneged on the deal he made with Alaric. But! Since the Necromancer already came through on the rest of the deal, and considering the unbreakable covenant spell that he and Alaric performed, it’s unlikely he’s the culprit here.
It is possible, however, that the Necromancer thought he had the power to bring Landon back to life, but that the golden arrow — Landon’s achilles heel — was the exception to the Necromancer’s dead-raising powers, as well as Landon’s phoenix powers. If the show ever does actually kill Landon off, it’ll be in some big, epic way, so we’re not worried that he’s officially dead. (Not that people ever stay dead for long in the Vampire Diaries-verse, anyway).
And Hope can’t stay in a coma forever though, either — she's the center of the show, so you know she’s going to be around at least for the Season 2 finale. And there’s no way she and Landon are going to miss that big musical episode. They’ll likely be awake by the end of Episode 17.
Alyssa Chang Is “On The Warpath”
One really fun new antagonist this season has been mean girl Alyssa Chang (Olivia Liang). Now that she’s been brought back to life and freed from the Necromancer’s grasp, she’s got some revenge to enact against Josie for snapping her neck. Plec confirmed on Twitter that this will be a main storyline in Episode 17, so we’ll get to see Alyssa and Josie go head to head as soon as the show comes back.
Another detail that Plec shared about Episode 17 is that Chad (Charles Jazz Terrier) was also freed from the Necromancer, and he will be very funny “in his first day as not a Zombie.” Chad’s been a big part of the comic relief of the season as he’s a very mundane person who somehow got roped into assisting the Necromancer, so we’re looking forward to seeing what he does next.
Malivore Will Have A Big Role In Season 3
It feels like Malivore has been relegated to the background lately, especially as the super squad has been focusing on the threats that are Dark Josie and the Necromancer, but Dark Josie… seems to be gone for now (which Plec confirms). She might make a reappearance in a future season, but for now, Josie has conquered her demons, and can just be the regular sweet Josie we all know and love.
She also put her magic away (something we saw her birth mother do on The Vampire Diaries), which will probably come back to bite her in the ass whenever that huge threat appears in the Season 2 finale (or even before that) arrives.
The Necromancer, on the other hand, is more powerful than ever. As part of his deal with Alaric, Lizzie transferred all of the dark magic from Josie’s body to the Necromancer but despite this, the Necromancer is likely not Season 2’s final big bad. As Plec said in this interview, Malivore will always continue to be the show’s ultimate villain.
The question is, what is he now going to do with all of that power? Prochnow thinks that the Necromancer is going to raise the dead to “create an army of sorts.” She also theorizes there could be some familiar faces among the dead. (One big guest star in Season 1 was Josie and Lizzie’s birth mom, Jo, being brought back to life for a day by the Necromancer.)
Another theory is that the Necromancer intends to raise Malivore (presumably to enact his own revenge against the golem), which is obviously a horrible idea, because Malivore will crush the Necromancer like a bug. We have to remember that Malivore spent the entirety of his immortal lifetime swallowing super-powerful magical creatures.
Even with the extra power boost from the dark magic, the Necromancer is no match for Malivore, who will probably absorb him like the golem has absorbed every other magical creature he’s ever met (barring the three protected species — vampires, werewolves, and witches).
Malivore has been a huge problem for the school just in his swamp form; a fully powered up Malivore will probably be the biggest threat the show has ever had, that is, if the Necromancer succeeds in raising him. If that happens, then Malivore in his full form will be the new big threat when Season 3 eventually airs.
Or when the rest of Season 2 eventually airs. You never know.
Images: The CW