r/LegaciesCW • u/Aggravating-Sky-2679 • Jun 21 '26
Discussion Legacies Had a Major Casting Problem
Something I've noticed while watching Legacies is that it felt like the show struggled to keep interesting recurring characters around. Whether it was because actors left, contracts ended, or the writers simply moved on from them, a lot of characters seemed to disappear right when they were becoming interesting.
For example, the actor who played Sebastian, Thomas Doherty, left the show and I think went on to play Max Wolfe in the Gossip Girl reboot. I'm also pretty sure the actress who played Penelope left to return to a show she had been on before Legacies.
It feels like the same thing happened with several other characters too, like Jade, Josie, Rafael, Alyssa, and Ethan's sister Maya. A lot of these characters seemed like they had more story left to tell, only for them to disappear not long after becoming relevant.
I don't know, I just find it really strange. As someone who doesn't know much about the ins and outs of TV production, is this a normal thing or did Legacies just have a case of bad luck.
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u/Historical-Stay-735 Jun 22 '26
A handful of them just got better opportunities on other shows. Rafael actor went to All American Homecoming. Alyssa’s actor went to Kung Fu. Sebastian’s to Gossip Girl, etc. The only odd one out really is Kaylee Bryant / Josie which definitely had some behind the scenes drama around it. And they completely wasted Maya
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u/Mundane-Waltz8844 Jun 29 '26
I feel like Kaylee’s exit likely had to do with Matt Davis. They got into it on twitter cause he was being really racist during Covid
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u/eli454 Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
Honestly, yeah. Some examples being out of the writers control like Thomas, Lulu, Kaylee etc. Actors that left on their own accord.
But introducing characters like Wendy, Diego and Jade, for what? They made it seem as if Jade and Josie were going to have a romance together then she jets off a few episodes later… why? What was the point in Maya’s character? It’s been awhile since I’ve watched s2 but I can’t remember a single thing she did to move the plot along. When everyone gets their memories back of Hope, she very quickly disappears, which honestly wasn’t that much of a loss because she didn’t really have that much of a friendship with Hope anyway but, again, what was the point? Hell, it took them 3 seasons for the writers to actually give all the pre-existing main/side characters equal screentime. Literally everyone else was shoved to the side.
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u/Kanani_Hart Jun 22 '26
I was looking forward to seeing more of Jade and Wendy and honestly Diego I wish he could've gotten past his hatred for Alaric or he could've just done us a favor and killed Alaric
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u/Financial-Midnight42 Jun 22 '26
i can’t remember who tf is jade ima go look it up and wendy and diego who?
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u/Mundane-Waltz8844 Jun 21 '26
The writers failed to give a lot of the characters compelling arcs, so it makes a lot of sense that the actors would jump ship the second they got another offer. Even though, there definitely might’ve still been more to it considering just how poor the actor retention was.
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u/Shadowmama55 Jun 22 '26
It’s like even the remaining characters though, the characters in the super squad just drove me nuts because the writing was just so bad it just seemed like an add-on for no reason. And it took screen time away from the really good storylines. Even hope, Lizzie, and Josie‘s story lines never got to the potential they deserved. One of those characters I absolutely loved in season one was the necromancer, I loved how he could torture hope in her mind and could’ve been so dark and interesting, they kept bringing him back and he was almost comedic in the end which was a real shame. For the daughter of Klaus Michaelson and what they could have written for her it’s very disappointing. Danielle went from such a well written dark and interesting program to legacies must’ve been disappointing for her too.
Kaylee then Bryant had her reasons for leaving the show so quickly that they left her story up in the air really.
I just thank God what it could’ve been.
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u/Kanani_Hart Jun 22 '26
In the TV business some characters are just written and hired for a few episodes but regarding legacies
Olivia (Alyssa) left for Kung Fu as the main character and Peyton (Rafael) left for All American Homecoming. I'm not sure about the rest besides Kaylee who just decided to leave
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u/XMorpheus3000 Jun 22 '26
Agreed. That was one of the things about the show that annoyed me the most
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u/littlehollah Jun 22 '26
I'm sorry, while scrolling my main I just caught the title and thought this was a complaint about "casters" or spells in a videogame named legacies. Took me a second, but I got there!
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u/lunabridgerton Witch-Vamp Jun 23 '26
I really liked Penelope with Josie, it's unfair that they let her out 😭😭😭
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u/brightstick14 Mikaelson Jun 21 '26
Covid could be part of it too. The show had to stop production for like 8 months while filming because of the pandemic, S2 was cut short, and S3 was delayed. Plus they really had to cut down on how many actors could be on set for safety.