As The CW series Legacies returns for Season 3, The Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted’s Headmaster Alaric (Matthew Davis) sends the students off-campus for their first-ever field day for what is supposed to be some healthy competition. While he also hoped to buy himself some time to get a handle on what’s actually going on with Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell), a medieval monster challenges the students with a life-or-death situation in which they must discover which of them is truly worthy of saving the day.
During this 1-on-1 phone interview with co-showrunner/executive producer Brett Matthews talked about figuring out how to return after truncating their last season due to COVID, why he treasures his working relationship with show creator/co-showrunner Julie Plec, kicking off the season without Hope, the evolving Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) and Josie (Kaylee Bryant) dynamic, the challenges of shooting the field day scenes, what fans can expect from the “Salvatore: The Musical!” episode, and who takes the most surprising journey so far this season.
COLLIDER: After having to truncate the end of Season 2 due to a global pandemic, how did you figure out where you wanted to pick back up for Season 3, and how you would work back in some of the things that you ultimately couldn’t do last season?
BRETT MATTHEWS: Yeah, that was really the challenge of this season. Season 2 got truncated by the COVID pandemic, so what would have been the tee up to the last chapter of our second season became the finale. It required the reworking of some things, so as a result, you’ll see some storylines bleed over to Season 3. That’s just the nature of the beast. But we did go and rework some of those episodes to hopefully provide a conclusion to Season 2, and also work as a pretty good launch to Season 3. So, it was definitely a challenge and something that the writers actually spent a lot of time working on. Hopefully, it plays well, even if it was not as intended. We went back in and tried to make it work. If this is the hand we are dealt, how can we tell these stories?
You worked with Julie Plec on The Vampire Diaries, and now you’re back with her on Legacies. How did you guys first end up working together, and what made you want to return to this world and be a part of Legacies?
MATTHEWS: It was really just that I took a job in the early part of Season 3 [of The Vampire Diaries] not knowing how it would go. Over the years, I really found a kindred spirit in her, as I understood her sensibility more and more. The thing about The Vampire Diaries was that it was television that I was proud to be a part of. This franchise that Kevin [Williamson] and Julie created, it was just really a thrill to be on a show that had that much impact on the conversation. It was a buzzy show, and a dark gothic show, but it really had an integrity to it. I learned a lot on that show. That show consumed story at a breakneck pace and it was a really unique experience And so, by the end of The Vampire Diaries, Julie and I were thick as thieves. We both went off to do another thing in the intervening time, but then she called me right when Legacies was beginning and said she wanted to do it together, and it was very easy to say yes. You want to learn from the best.
It’s been fun to take that energy to Legacies, which is a faster and looser show, but also a show tied to this thing that was a labor of love that we all worked on together for the better part of a decade. It’s really fun to continue that, and see what’s the same and what’s changed. That’s why Legacies is a little different from the other shows. Every show has its own identity, and we both love that about Legacies. The Vampire Diaries was dark and intense, and death could come knocking on your door at a moment’s notice. The world has weirdly gone in that direction, so Legacies is hopefully the antidote to that, where it is a little bit brighter, it is a little bit more sunny, and it is a little bit more optimistic about the world. We love that about the show. [Julie] really is one of my heroes in the business and one of the best people to work with. Our partnership is just very unique, and one that I really, really treasure.
Your first episode back, you’re down Hope and Landon after the events of last season’s finale. What was it like to bring the show back and kick off the season without Hope, and really focus on how everyone at school is managing without her?
MATTHEWS: That’s the blessing and the curse of an ensemble show. Legacies goes through Hope Mikaelson. That is the truth of the show. Danielle is such a fantastic actress, and she is the hero at the center of this story. The show is built upon her legacy. But over the years, we’ve also built a lot of great supporting characters to that hero’s journey. Sometimes the plot requires the hero to be the hero, but it was really a lot of fun to remove that foundational element for one episode. We don’t want it to be longer than that. But in a vacuum without Hope, to see the other heroes step up and learn a little more about them and their interpersonal dynamics was fun, and something you don’t often get the opportunity to do on a week to week basis. So, it was a challenge because Hope and the show are linked together, but in the absence of that, everybody is put a little more center stage, and it was fun to get to see them all get a chance to do that.
What are you most enjoying about where the Lizzie and Josie dynamic is at this point?
MATTHEWS: I like that they’re becoming their own people, and I like the struggle of that. I like the push and pull. Josie has obviously been on a very specific journey for these three years, and it’s covered a lot of real estate. It’s about seeing how she returns to the fold and returns to the dynamic after the horrible events of Dark Josie — or can she, so easily? Lizzie and Josie have had a pretty crystal clear dynamic from the time they were little kids. That dynamic, after the events of last season, really has been upended, and it’s really hard following a trauma like that to just return to the status quo. That’ll be the struggle. I think they see each other as equals more than ever, but we know how Josie has always put her own feelings aside to service Lizzie. At the same time, we’re also seeing that from Lizzie’s point of view, she also feels like Josie really has it together and weirdly aspires to be more like her. That’s the interesting push and pull of sisters, but also twins who share this profoundly deep bond and dynamic. So, that dynamic will continue to evolve in this season and beyond.
What was it like to take all of these students out of the school and take them outdoors to have field day? What are the challenges in doing scenes like that, with so many moving pieces at once?
MATTHEWS: Group scenes are always hard because you owe that many more angles. They’re fun for us, as writers. They’re really difficult for a director to shoot because you just owe a million little pieces. That’s the blessing and the curse. That’s why you see it less often on shows. It’s really a technical challenge, and more than that, it’s just a time suck. But every once in awhile, it’s just really fun to throw caution to the wind and do that. So much of the fun of the show, as it evolves, is the Super Squad and this group dynamic. It’s definitely worth doing when we can. The field day was a great opportunity to do that. It was freezing on the one side of COVID, and then we resumed on the other side of COVID, five months later, and it was a lot warmer. That field day stuff was shot on either side of the pandemic, so it was fun to pick back up. It was a great way to pick back with so many members of the cast present. It really got our post-COVID work off to a great start.
I love that you also weave mythology for the legend of Excalibur into the episode. What’s it like to figure out how to put a Legacies spin on something like that?
MATTHEWS: That’s just what we do. That is at the heart of what is fun about the show. There are myths and legends and things that have been talked about, that have been assumed fictional, but these things have always existed, so that’s always fun. We have a greatest hits list of things we’d like to do, but it really goes to the characters and what we’re doing with them in a given episode. The concept marries into that. It’s always character first and concept second, but this was really fun. We wanted to see the Super Squad, in Hope’s absence, struggling with the fact that they’re worthy, and then finding a legend that married really nicely to that. A literal test of worthiness was a really fun way to do it. A lot of times, in passing, we all know these legends, but your knowledge of them might be fairly casual. The deeper you dig in, the more you find little wrinkles of what was true and what elements of the story you didn’t know that can work in your favor to highlight what your characters are going through or what those actions mean. In a nutshell, that’s really the fun of the show. This episode really shines a nice spotlight on that.
The Necromancer has become such an interesting character on the show. When you introduced that character, did you know that he would keep coming back and causing trouble?
MATTHEWS: No, I don’t think to the degree that he has. We knew that he was a really special villain that we really took a risk with and leaned into the over the top nature of him. That’s a really great example of character meeting actor and it exceeding your expectations. When you put those lines into Ben Geurens' mouth, suddenly it becomes something you wanna spend seasons with. I’m very proud of the Necromancer and how we write him, but Ben really does bring him to life and make him a character that we wanna see more of. That was something that would always happen on The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, where characters that were written with a certain shelf life in mind would exceed that because they were just so fantastic. He’s very much a throwback, in that way. He’s a character who just grew into much larger plans and demanded them, and we are absolutely here for it and love that character.
It sounds like we’ll finally get to see the “Salvatore: The Musical!” episode as Episode 303. What can you say to tease that and what do you think will most excite fans about it?
MATTHEWS: That episode is a love letter to our past. It’s where we come from. Seeing characters familiar from other shows in the franchise portrayed by the current show, it’s meta in all of the right ways, but it also functions as a true musical. It has brilliant songs written by Thomas Brandon, performed by so many members of our cast, who are so talented. It really is a love letter to the old shows. It’s a beautiful thing Legacies is such a fun sandbox that we’re able to do something like that without breaking the show.
At least for the first part of this season, who would you say has the biggest or most surprising journey that might be unexpected for audiences?
MATTHEWS: I might say MG. I think MG has a really rich journey that has been something we’ve been building to for awhile, but that we have really invested in and tried to find the real estate to tell. MG comes into his own a little bit more in Season 3, in a way that I really love. Obviously, the Hope journey is the thing that drives the show, and this is a big Hope season. There’s just no way around that. Every season is, but I really feel very strongly that Hope is at the center of this show and I think you will find her at the center of Season 3. I’m very excited to tell her story this season.
Legacies airs on Thursday nights on The CW.