The CW's Legacies ended its first season with a massive status quo shift. In order to save the world from Malivore, Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell) sacrificed herself in an act that would ultimately make it as though she had never existed. In a single moment, Hope was erased from the hearts and minds of the people her knew her. It made for a serious cliffhanger for the series, but now in the first photos from The Vampire Diaries universe series' Season 2 premiere, it looks like the world is moving on just fine without Hope, at least for now.
The CW has released three photos from the upcoming Legacies second season premiere, entitled "I'll Never Give Up Hope". The photos don't really real a lot about the season, but they do show Josie Saltzman (Kaylee Bryant), Lizzie Saltzman (Jenny Boyd), Landon Kirby (Aria Shahghasemi), and Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis) all going about their normal lives without Hope in sight -- and presumably in mind.
While Hope is notably absent from these photos, it's at least somewhat likely that fans will be seeing in the season and when Hope does appear, Russell is looking forward to the potential to explore the character's dark side.
"I think that Season 2 will definitely explore Hope's absence in this world and the impact that she does have," Russell said earlier this year. "I'd really love to explore her darker side a bit after jumping into Malivore. I'm sure it's taken some sort of effect on her mental psyche."
Not that Hope was in the best place before Malivore. In The Originals, the series Legacies is spun-off from, Hope lost both of her parents under pretty traumatic circumstances, not to mention being possessed by The Hollow, the spirit of a powerful, evil witch while she was a child and a host of other horrors. They're events that fans have never really seen Hope deal with, due in part to a time jump between The Originals and Legacies.
"I'd really like to see how Hope handles situations, traumatic situations, more on-screen," she added. "Because after the death of her parents, we kind of did a time jump, and we didn't really see that process, and I'd love to see that process explored a little bit more. And I'd also love to see the impact that it has on Hope and Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) because she did it for them, so it's kind of a beautiful and tragic dynamic that I'm really excited to see more of next year."
Read on to see the first photos from Legacies' Season 2 premiere!
