The Legacies Premiere Left Us With One Question: What the Hell Is Landon Kirby?

The premiere of Legaciesbrought us right back to the world of Mystic Falls, which we'd been dearly missing since the end of The Vampire Diaries, but this new series is definitely shaking things up in its own fun, new way.

Focusing on the next generation of supernatural kids, Legacies is set at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted, the safe haven Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell), Lizzie Saltzman (Jenny Boyd), Josie Saltzman (Kaylee Bryant) and dozens of other supernatural teenagers call home. We got to explore this new world through the fresh, human (maybe) eyes of Landon Kirby (Aria Shahghasemi) in the series premiere. He accompanied his werewolf foster brother to the school for his orientation to learn about spell-casting classes, werewolf transformation dungeons and witch tantrums -- oh yeah, and to experience some casual mind-wiping.

Humans are absolutely not allowed to know about what really goes on at the Salvatore School, meaning Landon needed to be compelled. Unfortunately, the compulsion didn't work on him, leading everyone to assume he'd somehow gotten vervain into his system and they'd have to wait it out before they'd be able to take his memories away.

Discover your new favorite show: Watch This Now!

After spending some quality time with his old almost-flame Hope (she finally managed to connect with someone again after years of isolating herself thanks to her parents' deaths!), Landon was prepped and ready to be compelled to forget everything he'd learned about the supernatural. The second time though, he played along when the compulsion didn't stick, pretending his memories of the Salvatore School were gone, and then he beat it out of town, taking a mysterious knife with him for good measure.

Fans of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals know what that means... he's got to be a supernatural being to resist compulsion without vervain! That leaves us with one huge question: What the heck is Landon?!

According to executive producer Brett Matthews , Landon's supernatural identity might even be a mystery to Landon himself! "Landon's never had a place to belong, and he's never really known who his family is or what he is, and so it's just the culmination of a life-long search for him, and it's going to be a really big part of the show," Matthews tells TV Guide. As for what exactly he is, Matthews warns not to expect answers about that right away. "It's going to be a question we carry with us for a while, but the good news is, it's a question with a definitive answer."

Legacies Cast Picks Their Dream The Vampire Diaries and The Originals Crossovers

Another definitive answer we won't be getting is what that knife he stole from the school is and what it's capable of. From what we've seen, when Hope and Josie tried to use dark magic to locate Landon on his way out of town, the knife started to glow red (much to Landon's shock), and the result was a bus full of charred corpses. Um, yikes?

"At the end of the first episode, we really turn the story for Landon Kirby," executive producer Julie Plec teases. "First we thought he was an innocent hapless human, then maybe he might be a terrible, horrific murderer, who left a bus full of burned corpses behind. And the mystery of the season is what happened? Who is this guy? Is he supernatural? Is he human? Was he [in the] wrong place [at the] wrong time? Is this all just a terrible coincidence? There's a lot to uncover and a lot to explore about him, and we get right into that in the second episode."

Said episode will see the search for Landon continue, with both Hope and Landon's brother, Rafael (Peyton Alex Smith), eager to track him down -- though with very separate agendas. While Hope has promised to be the villain of his story thanks to his apparent betrayal, Rafael may be slightly more forgiving of his foster brother.

"In coming episodes, there's definitely a little bit of tension between Rafael and Hope as far as how to handle Landon because Hope and Rafael have very different ways of handling situations like that," Danielle Rose Russell tells TV Guide. "You see Hope battle with wanting to open her heart up to Landon, which is the first time she's ever really had that battle since her parents died because she's afraid to get close to people because she thinks she's responsible for the relationship failing in some way. ... Once she does and she's betrayed by him, she really kind of takes a dark turn, and I like to say that Klaus comes out of her a little bit because it's the first time that she did decide to open her heart to someone since her parents died, and it did her wrong -- again."

Legacies Will Feature a Major The Vampire Diaries Throwback This Season

It's not an easy thing, kissing your old crush under a magically starry sky only to find out that he may have been conning you the whole time. Poor girl.

According to Aria Shahghasemi, we shouldn't count Landon's feelings for Hope out just yet. In fact, despite all the subterfuge, Shahghasemi believes Landon's feelings might still be completely genuine. "I think they are," Shahghasemi says. "Part of the reason I say that is because of the episode of The Originals [he appeared in], because that was before Landon knew about any of this stuff, and he still had that crush on Hope. So this amazing stroke of luck where Hope ends up in Georgia in the church that he's sitting outside of, I think that means something to him."

Let's just hope he gets a chance to convey that to her sooner rather than later. If Hope's temper is anything like her father's, Landon might need that mysterious knife more than he thinks. Mikaelsons tend to rip hearts out first and ask questions later.

PHOTOS: 17 Things to Look Forward to in Legacies

Legacies airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.

(Full Disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS, one of The CW's parent companies).