Legacies: Get to know the Saltzman twins

Vampire Diaries fans know Lizzie and Josie Saltzman. Or at least they knew them when they were helpful magical toddlers. But in the upcoming Originals spin-off, Legacies, the twins are now teenagers, complete with hormones, opinions, and of course, crushes. And with a father who’s the headmaster of their school — and a mentor to Hope Mikaelson — their lives can sometimes get a bit complicated.

“They’re these beautiful, deeply flawed, and wonderful young women,” showrunner Julie Plec says. “Lizzie Saltzman so desperately wants to be loved and adored, and I think that’s born out of feeling a little bit like her dad has this special surrogate daughter relationship with Hope. And to quote her, she thinks Hope is ‘stuck up.’ Hope doesn’t make any effort to be friends with anybody. So she loves to go out of her way to poke at Hope and to make comments about her, just all born out of a place of utter, delicate jealousy.”

Jenny Boyd, the actress who plays Lizzie, adds, “Lizzie is very vulnerable, and I think she is quite insecure on the inside. Josie is a caretaker. She’s a little more softly spoken, and Lizzie’s the headstrong sister.”

Considering the girls were raised by Caroline Forbes, it should be no surprise they’re described using words like “headstrong” or “caretaker.” Caroline, though she’s absent when Legacies begins, is both of those things.

When it comes to Josie, actress Kaylee Bryant says, “Josie’s kind of the lesser half of the Saltzman twins. Lizzie takes up a lot of space and can make a mess out of anything, and Josie is very quick to clean up those messes and be the one to make sure that Alaric and her are as set up as they can be, even if it kind of hinders her own life sometimes.”

Plec adds, “Josie is just juggling all the time to try to keep everybody friends, to try to keep everything working. She recognizes her sister is a very complicated and sometimes borderline dangerous individual, and she does everything she can to try to make her feel all the love and to just keep her from losing her sh— on a daily basis.” After all, if this is a show about young people who could take a turn to the dark side at any moment, it’s probably a good thing that Lizzie has Josie.

Legacies premieres Thursday, Oct. 25, at 9 p.m. ET on the CW.

With reporting by Chancellor Agard.

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• How Legacies will explain Caroline’s absence
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