The fourth season of The CW’s “The Originals” will undergo a lot of changes. First, the show will move to a mid-season premiere which means it will start airing early next year. The CW has not yet announced an official premiere date for the show.
The show will also consist of 13 episodes only, almost less than half of the usual episode order of previous seasons.
Secondly, Season 4 will jump five years after the events of the Season 3 finale. Hayley and now a grown-up Hope will fight to save and reunite their family.
The supernatural drama ended on a tragic note last season after Charles Michael Davis’ Marcel became invincible and bit Daniel Gillies’ Elijah and Nathaniel Buzolic’s Kol.
He also poisoned Riley Voelkel’s Freya and struck Joseph Morgan’s Klaus with Papa Tunde’s knife. Freya then put her siblings in a dream world in a desperate attempt to save them.
During the recently held San Diego ComicCon, the cast and producers confirmed that a five-year time jump will happen when Season 4 of “The Originals” opens.
Hope will be about seven years old and Pheobe Tonkin shares that despite being away from her father, Hope’s personality will mimic Klaus’.
Season 4 will focus on how Hayley will do everything to save the Mikaelsons. Tonkin teases fans that she might have regrets from time to time but because they are Hope’s family, she will do what she can to reunite them.
Marcel doesn’t have anyone he can lean on in New Orleans after he wreaked havoc during the Season 3 finale. However, he does keep counsel with a vampire names Sofya who once worked for Lucien. He also has an alliance with Josh.
During the show’s panel at ComicCon, Davis revealed that Marcel will be busy building his community and dating other women during his free time.
The show also lost two major characters last season. Danielle Campbell and Leah Pipes, who played Davina and Cami, respectively, both exited the series last season.
Fans will remember that Cami, now a newbie vampire, died due to Lucien’s poison while Davina was killed by Kol. Speaking to TV Line, showrunner Julie Plec revealed that the two characters will still make appearances in the upcoming season.
Plec also revealed that most characters will be happy with their romantic lives this season. The executive producer jests that everybody is going to have a run for love in Season 4. She even teased that two actors will get some major romance that will be a focal point of an episode.
Plec also singled out Freya, who is going to have a lot of opportunities for romance in the upcoming season. Julie says that Freya has been asleep for too long and with how she saved her siblings from ultimate death last season, it’s about time she gets some romance too.
To make up for the loss, the show just added two new characters to join the fun in Season 4. Neil Jackson from “Sleepy Hollow” has been cast as a vampire named Alistair.
Jackson’s inclusion to the show was revealed by Morgan himself. Little is known about his role but by the looks of it, Alistair and Klaus will have plenty of interaction.
Also dropping by New Orleans is “Containment” actress Christina Moses. She will play a bisexual werewolf named Keelin who also happens to be a doctor.
Keelin is being hunted since she holds the key to a potential werewolf venom cure. Reports say she will be a prisoner of the Mikaelson family and will be their hope for survival.
As per Vine Report, it is possible that Keelin is a member of one of the packs which Hayley has been searching for. It seems as though the wolf doctor does not want to be found as her whole family has been murdered and she is apparently the last wolf from their line.