‘Legacies’: Why the Necromancer Keeps Coming Back

The Necromancer is one of the antagonists of the supernatural drama series Legacies on The CW. In an interview, showrunner Brett Matthews talked about the character and how he keeps popping up.

‘Legacies’ is in its latest season on The CW

Set within the greater The Vampire Diaries universe at The Salvadore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted, Legacies “tells the ongoing story of a new generation of supernatural students as they learn what it means to be special in a society that wouldn’t understand their gifts.” The series is currently in its third season on The CW.

The series stars Danielle Rose Russell as Hope Mikaelson, Jenny Boyd as Lizzie Saltzman, Kaylee Bryant as Josie Saltzman, Quincy Fouse as Milton “MG” Greasley, Aria Shahghasemi as Landon Kirby, Peyton Alex Smith as Rafael, Chris Lee as Kaleb, Leo Howard as Ethan Mac, Ben Levin as Jed, with Matthew Davis as Alaric Saltzman.

The CW’s official descriptions of seasons 2 and 3 reads:

In season two, Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell) returned to a world that had forgotten she ever existed and reunited with her former Headmaster, Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis). Working together, Hope and Dr. Saltzman ultimately rejoined The Salvatore School to lead their Super Squad of powerful vampires, witches and werewolves, including Lizzie & Josie Saltzman (Jenny Boyd & Kaylee Bryant), MG (Quincy Fouse), Rafael (Peyton Alex Smith) and Kaleb (Chris Lee) and even a Phoenix, her true love Landon (Aria Shahghasemi), into battle against a dizzying horde of fantastic and deadly monsters birthed from the Malivore Pit … and their old nemesis, The Necromancer, who was determined to resurrect Malivore. As season three begins, Hope has risked everything to pull her friends back from the brink of a monstrous prophecy that threatened to doom them all. But when a heartbreaking loss shatters her whole world, Hope Mikaelson will be forced to fight fate itself.

The Necromancer on ‘Legacies’ has become a mainstay

One villainous character that has continued to be on the show over the course of its seasons so far is the Necromancer, portrayed by Ben Geurens. In an interview with Collider, Legacies’ showrunner, Brett Matthews, says he initially didn’t know that they’d have the character come back like that.

“We knew that he was a really special villain that we really took a risk with and leaned into the over the top nature of him,” he said. “That’s a really great example of character meeting actor and it exceeding your expectations. When you put those lines into Ben Geurens’ mouth, suddenly it becomes something you wanna spend seasons with. I’m very proud of the Necromancer and how we write him, but Ben really does bring him to life and make him a character that we wanna see more of.”

The way the Necromancer wasn’t intended to be a regular character but has continued to appear is similar to the way characters appeared on episodes of the other shows in the franchise and continued to appear long after their initial appearances.

“That was something that would always happen on The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, where characters that were written with a certain shelf life in mind would exceed that because they were just so fantastic,” explained Matthews. “He’s very much a throwback, in that way. He’s a character who just grew into much larger plans and demanded them, and we are absolutely here for it and love that character.”

Legacies airs Thursdays on The CW.