CW’s ‘Legacies’ is a spin-off of a spin-off and its first season is already off to a flying start. ‘Legacies’ came from CW’s ‘The Originals’ which ended last year, and ‘The Originals’ was a spin-off of the beloved ‘The Vampire Diaries’. It isn’t often that there’s a “spin-off of a spin-off” but creator Julie Plec knows this world like the back of her hand and also knows what her audience wants to see.

‘Legacies’ takes us back to the town of Mystic Falls and follows the students of The Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. MEA Worldwide (MEAWW) got the chance to speak with one of the stars of the show, Jenny Boyd, who plays the seemingly aggressive but vulnerable Lizzie Saltzman. The character of Lizzie is certainly very similar to ‘The Vampire Diaries’ fan-favorite character Caroline Forbes, played by Candice King. While King is yet to appear on the series, she is spoken of often and is the mother of both Lizzie and her twin sister Josie. Boyd spoke on the similarities between Lizzie and Caroline and how the parallels actually happened very naturally.

“It's interesting because especially early on, there were so many similarities between my character and the character of Caroline. I don’t think that was necessarily the plan to do that but it actually came really organically because the character was written in a way that was quite similar. Lizzie is very fast paced like Caroline and I also learned very early on in the development of the show that Lizzie really identifies Caroline as her one and only mom. So it makes total sense that she would then emulate her as much as possible. So in a way, I took what Candice King had done and worked off of it,” she explains.

Candice King attends FCancer's 1st Annual Barbara Berlanti Heroes Gala at Warner Bros. Studios on October 13, 2018 in Burbank, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

Something that many people likely don’t know is that Boyd and King knew each other before Boyd landed the role of her daughter on the series. While there are a million acting classes in Los Angeles, it is quite the coincidence that this is how the two first met and then developed a mentor/mentee type of bond. Boyd dished on a funny story of how she was able to share the news of landing the role with King herself.

“This is a really crazy story. Candice joined the same acting class that I was in like a month before I got the role so she and I were seeing each other every week and were friendly, and then I got cast to play her daughter. Literally the next night I ambushed her in class, I basically jumped out of the bushes and was like, ‘Candice! I’m playing your daughter!’ Ever since then she has been such a great mentor, I go to her for advice, it’s just been really wonderful having her as a contact and as a friend.”

While the character of Lizzie is beloved by many, she is also a work in progress, to say the least. These students all do have supernatural abilities, but most of them are still kids dealing with issues way beyond what most teenagers will ever have to deal with. That said, at the end of the day, Lizzie is still a kid trying to find herself in this crazy world but is also dealing with issues beyond her control. Boyd expanded on this and spoke on the ways she is really able to relate and connect with her character as well as the parts that are a bit more challenging for her.

“The thing about Lizzie that I connect with the most is her vulnerability, I really understand that. I think I went through a lot of similar feelings when I was Lizzie’s age. That feeling of uncertainty self-consciousness, trying to compensate for being young and lost and not really knowing who you are. But the fact that they say Lizzie is bi-polar on the show, I really needed to make sure to get that right because that isn’t something I can necessarily personally connect to but I feel a big responsibility to get that aspect of her character right. I mostly relied on the writing of the character to try and portray that but that was definitely the element of her character that I felt pressure to get right,” Boyd reveals.

The writers threw fans a curveball when in the second to last episode of the season Lizzie’s twin sister Josie proved to possibly be the stronger of the two, which could result in her killing her own sister during the ever impending “merge”. Boyd herself was surprised by the twist but was also excited for what that would bring to the story.

“Josie coming out as possibly the stronger of the twins was definitely a really cool and interesting twist. I really enjoyed that because she obviously allowed Lizzie to be in that power position and kind of walk all over her, but it’s so much more interesting that Josie is just as powerful if not more powerful than Lizzie.”

The second season of ‘Legacies’ currently doesn’t have a release date, but the actors will be getting back to work sooner rather than later. While the actors don’t know much about what to expect from the next season, Boyd told us that the writers are already looking for input from the actors.

“I hardly have any insight for the second season but the writers have been really great because they asked us to pitch any ideas or thoughts for where they want our characters to go. There were talks of maybe a romance for Lizzie next season, but I really don’t know much about anything.”

Make sure to catch up on season one of ‘Legacies’ on the CW app!