'Legacies' Canceled: Why 'The Vampire Diaries' Spin-Off Is Coming to an End

The Vampire Diaries spin-off Legacies has been canceled after its fourth season at The CW.

The news was announced on Thursday, May 12 among numerous other show cancelations, thus marking the end of the vampire show's 13-year reign on the channel.

Here's everything you need to know about why The CW decided to cancel it.

Why is 'Legacies' Ending After Four Seasons?

Legacies was the third show in The Vampire Diaries universe, following the flagship show and its spin-off The Originals.

The show follows vampire-werewolf-witch "tribrid" Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell) during her years at the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted, a supernatural school helmed by Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis).

Hope was first introduced in The Originals and so Legacies had more than one legacy to uphold in the franchise (pardon the pun).

The show's cancelation was announced alongside six others, including Magnum P.I. and Rosewell, New Mexico, and the decision appears to be linked to the network's rumored sale, according to TVLine.

Legacies' ratings for Season 4 were down compared to Season 3, with the show averaging 760,000 viewers and a 0.2 demo in total per week in comparison to the previous season's 1 million viewers and a 0.3 demo.

According to TVLine, the show's fourth season does have a 107% bump from DVR users, one of the two largest for the network, and even with the slightly lower ratings it only trails The Flash, Superman & Lois and All American.

The show's creator and executive producer Julie Plec likened The CW's decision to cancel a total of seven shows with one of the most brutal moments in Game of Thrones: The Red Wedding.

In a tweet, she wrote: "It's the Red Wedding at WBTV/CW today. Much more to say, but not today.

"Loads of gratitude coming for fans and cast and crew in future tweets. But today, we mourn."

Plec also helped develop, and was a showrunner of, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals during their respective runs from 2009 to 2018.

It's is not the only vampire-based franchise that Plec has helmed as she is also developing Vampire Academy for NBC's streaming platform Peacock.

Russell has not yet commented publicly about the show's cancelation and neither have other leading cast members like Aria Shahghasemi and Jenny Boyd.

Legacies' Season 4 finale is set to air on Thursday, June 16, bringing the franchise to a close, for now at least, with its 20th episode.

Legacies will continue to air on Thursdays on The CW at 9 p.m. EDT.