‘The Originals’ Season 2 Preview: What’s It About and Who’s In It?

The Originals season 1 Cast
The cast of ‘The Originals’ (Photo by Mathieu Young © 2013 The CW Network, LLC)

The CW will launch the second season of the one-hour The Vampire Diaries spinoff, The Originals, on October 6, 2014. The spinoff focuses on the Mikaelson clan and stars Joseph Morgan as Klaus and Daniel Gillies as Elijah.

Claire Holt stars as Rebekah, Phoebe Tonkin is Hayley, Charles Michael Davis is Marcel, Daniella Pineda plays Sophie, Leah Pipes is Camille, and Danielle Campbell stars as Davina.

The Synopsis: The first season of The Originals brought the most formidable creature on earth, the Original vampire-werewolf hybrid Klaus Mikaelson (Morgan), back to his former home – the vibrant and supernaturally charged city of New Orleans. When he arrived, his siblings Elijah (Gillies) and Rebekah (Holt) not far behind, he was stunned to learn that werewolf Hayley Marshall (Tonkin) was pregnant with his child. Though Elijah hoped that the news of a baby might help rebuild their fractured family, other forces threatened to destroy it further: namely, Marcel Gerard (Davis), Klaus’ beloved vampire protégé, whom the Originals thought to be long dead, and a dark secret that Marcel and Rebekah held for a century.

The Originals and Hayley soon found themselves caught in a bloody war between vampires and witches, the stakes raised by a vengeful young witch, Davina (Campbell), and by Klaus’ surprising connection to Cami (Pipes), a student with a painful past. Meanwhile, Hayley helped her exiled werewolf family return to the French Quarter, unaware that a ruthless pack of wolves was already lurking in the city, waiting to stage a violent coup on the vampires.

As the first season came to a close, the werewolves decimated the vampire community while the witches made a horrific assassination attempt against Klaus and Hayley’s newborn daughter.

Season two finds our heroes adjusting to a new status quo, with the newly empowered werewolves controlling the city and a myriad of unknown threats lurking. Though Klaus and Hayley have vowed to scorch the earth in order to make New Orleans a safe home for their daughter, Hope, they also have inner demons to battle.

As she adjusts to life as a hybrid, Hayley experiences crippling rage and depression after saying goodbye to her daughter, and Klaus – who needs his strength now more than ever – finds himself regularly weakened as the werewolves use the moonlight rings forged in his blood. Elijah, finding himself isolated from his troubled family, sets out to destroy Francesca (guest star Peta Sergeant) and her traitorous werewolves, connecting with Marcel and his renewed vampire community in the process.

Despite the dangerous climate of the city, Cami recommits to her studies and to pursuing the life she wanted before she met Klaus – but the werewolves in the Quarter aren’t the only enemies preventing New Orleans from any semblance of peace.

Unbeknownst to Klaus and Elijah, their ruthlessly devious parents have returned from the dead. Though their father, Mikael (guest star Sebastian Roché), is controlled by Davina’s magic, he remains ever-intent on killing Klaus – even if he has to go through Davina to do it. Elsewhere, their mother, Esther (guest star Alice Evans), inhabiting the body of a teenage witch, is fueled by a consuming and twisted love for her children as she devises a disturbing plan to reunite her fractured family – a plan that involves untold torment not only for the Original siblings, but for any and all of their loved ones.

Season 1 Interviews: Claire Holt and Joseph Morgan / Charles Michael Davis / Daniel Gillies

Season 2 Interviews: Joseph Morgan / Charles Michael Davis / Danielle Campbell / Leah Pipes / Phoebe Tonkin

Season 3 Interviews: Leah Pipes / Danielle Campbell / Phoebe Tonkin