Yesterday, Julie Plec and the cast of The Originals attended the show’s first Television Critics Association panel and shared quite a few details about the show and how it will be different from it’s predecessor, The Vampire Diaries.
It’s that wonderful time of year again, when the new fall shows start trying to get us all excited by doing interviews and appearances all over the place, and of course, dropping crucial hints and information about their upcoming premiere seasons. In that exact spirit, when the cast of The Originals showed up at the TCA’s yesterday, they were not playing around.
First up is Julie Plec, talking about the fundamental difference between The Vampire Diaries and , “We graduated high school, went to college and are getting our masters degrees in The Originals,” and continued with, “Originals is a show that is not about struggling as a vampire, but reveling in it. It’s about embracing vampirism.”
She went on to discuss that they will be shooting the show in Atlanta and maintaining the New Orleans feel by returning for occasional shoots, and by doing so they will be able to utilize much of the same crew from The Vampire Diaries enabling them to keep up the production quality and comfort that we’ve seen on 4 seasons of The Vampire Diaries.
Then we got the juicy details about the story, and who and how exactly we will be seeing our favorite Original family.
Claire Holt talked all about how her character’s bond with her family is stronger than any romantic entanglement with Matt, but that doesn’t mean she may never see the wrong end of Klaus’ infamous daggers again. Joseph Morgan “can’t guarantee” that Rebekah may not spend any more time in the Mikaelson family coffins.
We also heard about Hayley’s pregnancy and that it will not be hidden away or buried. In fact it will be a main player in the first season as Phoebe Tonkin who plays Hayley admits, “I think it’s going to be quite a slow burn of a pregnancy,” and Julie Plec adds, “The first season, the pregnancy will remain a problem or an issue for a good portion of the season.”
We also learned that Rebekah will be protective of Hayley and the baby, especially because she has always wanted a sister and is not going to turn down the opportunity that is right in front of her.
Next up is discussion of Daniel Gilles and Elijah. Dan was not present at the panel due to his commitment to another show, Saving Hope, but he will be in all the episodes of The Originals season 1, and that the production schedule has been very accommodating for Mr. Gilles’ hectic schedule. Elijah will be doing his honorable duty and will try to bring his family together.
The pilot that we all saw as a part of season 4 of The Vampire Diaries has been reworked to show Elijah’s perspective, giving us all a quality opportunity to see the events of the pilot in a new light.
Last, but certainly never least, we got a few details about Charles Michael Davis’ character Marcel, especially regarding his age. Apparently, he was quite the young vamp back in 1815, and The Originals will tell his origin story, from scrapper to the king of New Orleans.
While Marcel may be the king for now, Klaus will be slowly trying to con his throne out from under him. And when asked why Klaus didn’t simply kill the little punk in the pilot, Morgan says, “We’re used to Klaus coming in with a bull in a china shop mentality, a one man army. Marcel HAS an army.”
It seems that Klaus is going to have a bit of work to do before he can call himself king, and it is definitely going to be one of the biggest challenges he has faced thus far.
Special thanks to the folks at Givememyremote.com and TV Guide for bringing us all the details from the TCA panel.
Photo Credit: Joe Magnani/The CW