The Originals: How Will It Differ From The Vampire Diaries?

“The Vampire Diaries” spin-off, “The Originals,” will premiere on The CW this fall, and the cast and show boss Julie Plec hinted that this is a much more grown up drama.

“We just had an audience grow up with us for four years on ‘The Vampire Diaries.’ That show… is more of a coming of age story. It was cemented in the idea of first love and the struggles of being a vampire,” Julie Plec, Executive Producer of both series, said on Wednesday during “The Originals” presentation at the Television Critics Association Summer Tour in Beverly Hills. “And this is a show that is not about struggling to be a vampire. It’s about embracing vampirism. It’s about reveling in it.

“Some of these vampires are a thousand years old, and really, it’s about the power of the family community and the power struggle over the family community and the supernatural community of an entire city,” she continued. “We like to look at it as, you know, we graduated high school and went to college and are getting our little master’s degree in ‘The Originals.’”

Joseph Morgan, who brings the character Klaus (a vampire-werewolf hybrid), to New Orleans, where he will tangle with a vampire he sired – Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) – hinted that the new show will be a little wilder than its predecessor.

“Julie said it’s like ‘The Lost Boys,’ you know — party all night and sleep all day. I like to take that vibe into it. But it’s really, like you say, less about the guilt of being a vampire and more about kind of really reveling in that, and plus, we’re in New Orleans,” Jospeh said. “So you put us in that decadent situation and we have a lot more sort of vampire parties and crazy kind of indulgence in our true nature.”

WATCH IT NOW: ‘The Originals’ Claire Holt – What Will Happen With Rebekah & Matt? (Comic-Con 2013)

But while Klaus and his siblings – Daniel Gillies’ Elijah and Claire Holt’s Rebekah – will be contending with Marcel in New Orleans (not to mention werewolf Hayley, played by Phoebe Tonkin, who is carrying Klaus’ baby-on-the-way), there is opportunity for the gang to go back to Mystic Falls and “The Vampire Diaries.”

“What we would like to be able to do first is establish a show that works as its own show, and then, as the story dictates creatively, to be able to have a little bit of a crossover element if we can work it out, simply because there are relationships and history there that we left behind that we don’t want to pretend like those relationships never existed,” Julie said. “So as the show gets deeper into its own life, we have a lot of fan favorite relationships and other characters that may come to New Orleans or it’s possible that Rebekah may drop in for a little, you know, quick visit… dalliance… with her quarterback [Matt], but that will be down the road, and we’ll see how we can make it work just logistically.”

“The Originals” premieres on October 3 at 9PM and moves to its regular night and time, Tuesdays at 8 PM, beginning on October 8.

Copyright © 2024 by NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This material may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Read More

‘90 Day Fiancé: Love In Paradise’ Returning With Dramatic & Wild New Season