“The Vampire Diaries” was all about the forbidden romance. The drama followed Damon and Stefan Salvatore, both of whom were over 100, as they fell in love with teenage girls. The second CW spinoff, “Legacies,” won’t have so many weird age differences.

Julie Plec, showrunner of both “TVD” and this fall’s “Legacies,” addressed the change at the Television Critics Association press tour this week.

“There is something deeply romantic in that gothic and harlequin romance kind of way, and deeply inappropriate if you look at it through another lens,” Plec said (via TV Guide) of the old vampire/teenage human relationships. “And now, in 2018, there just is only one lens, in my opinion, in this moment, and I’m cool with that... So it’s actually we’ve tried to be a little bit just socially responsible for the moment.”

So don’t expect Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) to continue her “Originals” romance with Roman (Jedidiah Goodacre). The vampire turned out to not be as newly-turned as she may have thought. Flashbacks showed him all the way back in 1933.

Legacies
"Legacies" won't be tackling certain storylines that "The Vampire Diaries" and "The Originals" did. Danielle Rose Russell is pictured as Hope in the "Legacies" pilot. Quantrell Colbert/The CW

Don’t worry, it’s just romances with age differences that are getting the boot. Romances with vampires and humans are definitely still on the table. “The Originals” already showed that Hope, a witch/vampire/werewolf hybrid, seemed to have sparks with Landon (Aria Shahghasemi), who will be a regular when the new spinoff premieres in October.

While nixing older vampire/teenager relationships might be surprising to longtime fans of The Vampire Diaries Universe (TVDU), Plec said it actually helped the writers find new plots.

“It also opened doors for us to tell vampire stories that we haven’t actually told yet. So it’s fun,” Plec added.

At San Diego Comic-Con, Plec noted again that times have changed, but it wasn’t in reference to love stories. She revealed that arcs about mental illness will make it into “Legacies” as well.

“Now that people are talking more openly about mental illness, and about ableism, and any kind of tolerance and compassion, and all that. We’re living in a world where all that stuff is O.K. And I wanted to really explore that and not run from it,” she told reporters (via With An Accent).

“Legacies” premieres Thursday, Oct. 25 at 9 p.m. EDT on The CW.

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