'Legacies' Showrunner Julie Plec On Her Hopes for 'The Vampire Diaries' Spinoff

After a decade or so working within the world of The Vampire Diaries, Julie Plec has high hopes for Legacies, the latest spinoff, which premiered earlier tonight.

The town of Mystic Falls has a new generation of protectors in Legacies. The Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted is home to Klaus Mikaelson's daughter Hope, Alaric Saltzman's twins Lizzie and Josie, and other young adults who are coming of age as witches, vampires and werewolves, nurtured to be their best selves and overcome their villainous impulses. Together, they rely on ancient folklore and tales to learn how to battle their far-reaching enemies and attempt to keep balance in the world.

"I hope what they love is the familiarity and the nostalgia of the way that we tell these stories," Plec told reporters during a visit to the set in Atlanta. "The way that we live, deeply rooted in emotion and friendship and love and all those great things. I hope what they appreciate is how new it feels tonally and so different from what we've done in the past as well. I think that the show we're pushing humor a lot harder. We're hoping, as you see in episodes to come, we really brought it out our tone. We're embracing our inner comedians and having a lot of fun with that. We've never gotten to do that before. Just be blatantly funny. And then hopefully the monsters, I think, will get everybody excited but I can't talk too much about those."

Of course, the Vampire Diaries fandom is sometimes hard to please, and have been a bit torn on Legacies so far. Only time (and ratings) will tell if they connect with the work in the way Plec hopes for.

One thing is for sure: it's a big year for special schools; not only will The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina debut tomorrow, bringing the teenage witch up against a school for dark arts...but in January, SYFY will premiere Deadly Class, based on Rick Remender and Wes Craig's Image Comics series about a high school for budding assassins.

Legacies airs on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following episodes of Supernatural on The CW.