‘Legacies’ Showrunner Teases “Insane” ‘Vampire Diaries’ Character

There will be a few familiar faces from The Vampire Diaries when Legacies debuts on The CW, but when it comes to one beloved character things might be a little “insane”.

Showrunner Julie Plec recently told Entertainment Weekly that when it comes to Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig), the life-long Mystic Falls resident may still be the sheriff, but he’s not exactly the character fans will remember.

“For the first time, Matt Donovan isn’t torn by a commitment to protecting his best friends against other people in their peer group,” Plec says. “His singular goal is to keep the supernatural business on the DL, if not out of Mystic Falls, and to protect the town. So that puts him continually at odds with Alaric and the kids at the school. He says very clearly in an early episode, ‘If I get so much as a wind of your kids causing any trouble, I will come for them.’ So, he’s both friend and antagonist at the same time.”

While that itself doesn’t sound particularly crazy, it’s important to consider it in context of the character. On The Vampire Diaries, Matt spent the majority of his life surrounded by supernatural creatures and while most of those creatures were his friends, it still resulted more often than not in the very human Matt suffering or experiencing truly horrific, supernatural things. By the time audiences see him in Legacies, those experiences have taken a toll.

“He’s going a bit insane at this point,” Roerig explains. “He kind of went off the deep end. We see him in the future a little more frazzled and a little out of his mind from the vampires. He’s crazy sheriff Matt Donovan.”

Hopefully he won’t be so crazy that he will push away all of his friends. Steven R. McQueen is set to appear on Legacies, reprising his role as Matt’s friend (as well as the brother/cousin of Elena Gilbert from Vampire Diaries) Jeremy Gilbert.

Set in Mystic Falls, Legacies serves as a continuation of the story begun in The Vampire Diaries and carried through with The Originals. It will follow Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell), the 17-year-old vampire-werewolf-witch “tribrid” still dealing with the death of both of her parents as she attends the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted along with a new generation of supernatural beings trying to find their place in the world.

Julie Plec, who was behind both The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, co-writes and executive produces Legacies with Brett Matthews, along with Leslie Morganstein and Gina Girolamo. The series will air Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.

Will you be tuning into Legacies? Let us know in the comments below.

Legacies premieres Thursday, Oct. 25.