The CW picks up Legacies, the Hope-centric Originals spin-off

The Vampire Diaries universe isn't dead yet. The CW has picked up a Hope-centric spin-off titled Legacies.

After The Originals decided to end its fourth season by sending Hope Mikaelson to the boarding school run by TVD‘s Caroline and Alaric, rumors began circulating about a potential spin-off. Those rumors only grew when The Originals cast Danielle Rose Russell as a teenage Hope for its fifth and final season.

In August, CW president Mark Pedowitz took the stage at the TCA summer press tour and revealed that he and Originals showrunner Julie Plec had discussed a potential spin-off. "There's been many conversations about the character of Hope," Pedowitz said. Then, in March, it was revealed that the spin-off was in active development and even though there was no official pilot order, a potential cast was said to include Russell and Vampire Diaries star Matt Davis, as well as Quincy Fouse, Jenny Boyd, Kaylee Bryant, and Aria Shahghasemi.

And now, The CW has officially given a series order to Legacies, which comes from executive producers Plec, Brett Matthews, Leslie Morgenstein, and Gina Girolamo. The new show will tell the story of the next generation of supernatural beings at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted. It will feature a 17-year-old Hope, along with Alaric's twin daughters, and other young adults as they come of age in the most unconventional way possible, nurtured to be their best selves in spite of their worst impulses. Will these young witches, vampires, and werewolves become the heroes they want to be — or the villains they were born to be?

Additionally, The CW has picked up iZombie for a fifth season. The beloved series stars Rose McIver as Liv Moore, the medical resident whose life was turned upside down the night she became a zombie.