May 12 will go down as a bad day for fans of many shows from The CW in the 2021-2022 TV season, as the network went on a cancellation spree that makes the day that lost both Batwoman and Legends of Tomorrow pale in comparison. Over the course of less than 24 hours, The CW cancelled Legacies, Charmed, Dynasty, Roswell, Naomi, 4400, and In the Dark. The end of Legacies is also the end of an era, as the network is officially out of shows set in The Vampire Diaries universe. Julie Plec, who created The Vampire Diaries and The Originals before Legacies, weighed in on the mass cancellations.
Assuming that The CW isn’t premiering another spinoff for the 2022-2023 TV season, the universe started by The Vampire Diaries in 2009 will come to an end with Legacies’ Season 4 finale on June 16. Julie Plec took to Twitter to address the decision by the network with a comparison to Game of Thrones’ infamous Red Wedding. She wrote:
It’s the Red Wedding at WBTV/CW today. Much more to say, but not today.Loads of gratitude coming for fans and cast and crew in future tweets. But today, we mourn.May 12, 2022
Julie Plec didn’t exactly address the cancellations with a long text thread, but she did preview that she has “much more to say” at a later date. While she’s grateful to fans and the others who helped her to make Legacies, she made her feelings very clear by mentioning “the Red Wedding” and saying that mourning will come first.
The Red Wedding of Game of Thrones fame of course resulted in the slaughter of half the guests at a wedding, none of whom saw it coming until one of them caught on at the very last moment. The comparison may be a sign that Julie Plec wasn’t expecting Legacies to get the axe.
If that’s the case, then Legacies fans may be out of luck, depending on whether or not Season 4 already wrapped production on the finale. If the finale has already been filmed and was written with the expectation of a Season 5, then it’s possible that the final Vampire Diaries offshoot will end for good on a cliffhanger.
Of the three shared universe shows, Legacies is the only one cancelled without getting the time to plan a proper finale, as the ends of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals were announced well ahead of their series finales. Of course, The Originals didn’t have complete closure, and Season 4 of Legacies actually delivered on a big moment between Rebekah and Marcel.
The fourth season has seen Hope become a Tribrid, brought gods into the mix, and said goodbye to a major character without any sign that the end was nigh. And Legacies isn’t the only one of the cancelled shows that is likely to end with some major unanswered questions, so Julie Plec’s comparison to the Red Wedding undoubtedly feels pretty apt to fans of these seven shows.
The silver lining is that Legacies – unlike Naomi, for one – isn’t out of episodes yet, so fans still have more of Hope and Co. before the series finale. Fans can continue to find new episodes on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW, leading up to the finale on June 16. If you’re in the mood to revisit the earlier days of Legacies, you can find the first three seasons streaming with a Netflix subscription.
For some more important dates for shows ending the 2021-2022 TV season, be sure to check out our spring TV finale schedule. If you’re in the market for some new shows to try out moving forward, our 2022 premiere schedule can point you in the right direction.
