80 Fun Facts About The Originals

The Originals is a spin-off of which series?

It was the first television expansion of the franchise, and its backdoor pilot aired as an episode of the parent show.

In which American city is The Originals set?

The Mikaelsons had helped build the French Quarter before fleeing the city in 1919.

On which network did The Originals air?

The premiere was moved up to follow The Vampire Diaries' fifth-season opener to catch its fans.

Who plays Klaus Mikaelson?

Morgan later reprised Klaus in the final season of Legacies.

How many seasons of The Originals were made?

Series creator Julie Plec announced in July 2017 that the fifth season would be the last.

How many episodes of The Originals aired in total?

Seasons 1-3 ran 22 episodes each, while seasons 4 and 5 were shortened to 13.

Who created The Originals?

Unlike The Vampire Diaries, this spin-off was overseen by Plec alone with no involvement from Kevin Williamson.

What is the name of Klaus and Hayley's daughter?

The baby is the first ever tribrid, given to Rebekah to hide after her death is faked.

What kind of supernatural being is Klaus?

His mother Esther had an affair with a werewolf, making him a half-brother to the other Mikaelsons.

The Mikaelson family are known as 'the Originals' for what reason?

They were born as witches to their mother Esther, who turned them into vampires.

Who is Klaus's former protégé and adoptive son who rules the French Quarter when the Mikaelsons return?

He took charge as the self-proclaimed king while the Mikaelsons were away fleeing Mikael.

What is the title of the first episode of The Originals season 1?

The title is the Mikaelson siblings' family vow, and the episode was written by Michael Narducci and Julie Plec.

On what date did the backdoor pilot for The Originals air as an episode of the parent series?

That episode revealed Hayley was pregnant with Klaus's child, setting the whole spin-off in motion.

Who is Elijah Mikaelson's actor?

Gillies was simultaneously under contract for the Canadian medical drama Saving Hope and kept doing both shows.

Which actress plays Rebekah Mikaelson?

Holt left the main cast in season 1 but returned as a special guest star through the finale.

Phoebe Tonkin plays which character?

Tonkin and Claire Holt had already co-starred on the Australian mermaid series H2O: Just Add Water.

Before she became a hybrid, what species was Hayley at the start of the show?

She becomes the first unsired hybrid after dying with her daughter's blood in her system.

What is the name of Leah Pipes's bartender character who becomes involved with Klaus?

Cami's family had protected the French Quarter's humans for decades using dark objects once owned by Kol.

The young Harvest witch played by Danielle Campbell is how old at the start of the series?

She becomes Regent of all the witch covens in New Orleans and marries Kol Mikaelson.

Riley Voelkel plays which long-lost Mikaelson sibling?

The character was a recurring role in season 2 before being promoted to series regular for season 3.

Which actress plays the teenage Hope Mikaelson in season 5?

Russell continued as Hope for four seasons of Legacies.

Who plays young Hope in season 4?

Baby Hope in seasons 1-3 was played by uncredited infants.

Which witch is possessed by Finn Mikaelson in season 2?

Yusuf Gatewood played the character, who was upgraded to a series regular partway through season 2.

Kol Mikaelson spends season 2 in the body of which young witch?

Daniel Sharman played the possessed Kaleb, who bonds with Davina in a record shop.

Who is the Mikaelson siblings' aunt, the season 2 villain who claims the firstborn of every generation?

Claudia Black played her; Freya had been given to her as a child in exchange for Esther's fertility.

Who is Lucien Castle, the season 3 arrival?

Lucien warns of a prophecy that the Mikaelsons will fall by friend, foe and family.

Which season 3 character was Klaus's first love and the first vampire sired by Rebekah?

Aurora's brother Tristan was Elijah's first sired vampire, and the two work with Lucien against the family.

What is The Strix in The Originals?

Elijah founded the order centuries earlier, and its emissary Aya invites Marcel to join.

Which parent-show character comes to the French Quarter in season 3, fleeing the hunter Rayna Cruz?

It was the first crossover with the parent show, tied to its seventh season.

Which of these characters dies in season 3?

Lucien bites her after becoming the Beast, and the same season also kills off Jackson and Davina.

How much time passes between the end of season 3 and the start of season 4?

Marcel, now an upgraded Original, has been ruling the city while Klaus was imprisoned.

What is the name of the ancient evil spirit that menaces the family in season 4?

The entity's human name is Inadu, and it targets 7-year-old Hope for her tribrid nature.

In season 4, the family learns the ancient evil created the first of which species?

Hayley's Crescent wolves descend from that line, and the Hollow is vulnerable to their blood.

How old is Hope in the fifth and final season?

She has enrolled at the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted, the setting of the spin-off Legacies.

In season 5, why must the Mikaelson siblings stay apart from one another?

Whenever they get close, dark magic breaks out, which is why Elijah is off playing piano in France.

Which past love of Klaus from the parent series appears in season 5 as co-founder of the Salvatore School?

Candice King's Caroline is co-founder of the Salvatore School and mother of the Saltzman twins.

How do Klaus and Elijah die in the series finale?

Their deaths destroy the Hollow for good, and their ashes spread across New Orleans.

What is the title of the series finale of The Originals?

It aired on August 1, 2018.

In the finale, Rebekah is promised what so she can finally live a human life?

She also finally accepts Marcel's marriage proposal before saying goodbye to her brothers.

How does Hayley die in season 5?

She had first ripped off Greta's finger with the daylight ring on it.

What is Hayley's birth name?

Hope's middle name, Andrea, honours it.

What is the name of the spin-off centred on Hope Mikaelson at the Salvatore School?

It ran from October 2018 to June 2022 on The CW.

Matt Davis reprises which character as head of the Salvatore School in the later spin-off?

Alaric first visited the Mikaelsons in season 4 of The Originals, and his twin daughters help Klaus draw out the Hollow.

Which season 5 Originals character is Hope's human friend working at the Mystic Grill?

Aria Shahghasemi carried the role over into Legacies as Hope's boyfriend.

What was the 2014 web series that explored Kol Mikaelson's past in 1914 called?

Each webisode ran about two minutes, and it remains the franchise's only web series.

The series creator wrote three tie-in novels for The Originals. Which of these is one of them?

The trilogy is The Rise, The Loss and The Resurrection, starting in January 2015.

In 2014 the actor who plays Klaus won Favorite Actor in a New Series at which ceremony?

He won Favorite Actor in a New Series, while the show itself was nominated for Favorite New TV Drama.

The Originals earned a 2014 Emmy nomination in which category?

Colleen Labaff and Kimberley Spiteri were the nominated hairstylists.

Who composed the music for The Originals?

He also scored the spin-off Legacies.

In which Georgia city was The Originals filmed from 2013 to 2018?

Filming ran the entire five-season span there, from 2013 to 2018.

Roughly how many million viewers watched the series premiere on October 3, 2013?

It was the most-watched episode of the whole run; the finale drew 0.86 million.

As of 2026, what did Rotten Tomatoes give seasons 2, 3 and 4 of The Originals?

As of 2026 the first season scored 57% and the final season 67%.

Who returned Mikael, the Mikaelsons' vampire-hunting father, from the dead at the end of season 1?

She tethered him to a bracelet she controls and locked him in the church attic.

Who plays Mikael?

Roché reprised the role from The Vampire Diaries season 3.

Who is Klaus's biological father, resurrected by Esther in season 2?

Klaus kills him again when Ansel reveals he knows Hope is alive.

Whom does Hayley marry in season 2 in a ritual that shares her hybrid ability with the Crescent pack?

Klaus offers his own house for the wedding, and Elijah is left heartbroken.

Who was Josh Rosza's boyfriend in season 2, whose murder was staged to look like Klaus's work?

Dahlia staged the murder to look like Klaus's work; the two reunite in the afterlife when Josh dies in season 5.

What did Esther promise her sister in exchange for fertility?

Freya was the first payment, taken at age five while Esther was pregnant with Elijah.

Marcel gained the power to defeat the Originals at the end of season 3 by taking what?

Elijah killed him without knowing he'd drunk it, which triggered his transformation into an upgraded Original.

At the end of season 4, where is Elijah when Klaus finds him playing piano in a bar?

He had Marcel and Vincent erase his memories so he could bear to leave Klaus's side.

What is the real name of the season 4 villain, the ancient spirit that possesses Sofya and then Hope?

Blu Hunt played her once she was resurrected in physical form.

Which main cast member directed The Originals episodes, including 'Behind the Black Horizon'?

Gillies and Davis also directed episodes in later seasons.

Where do Kol and his wife live at the start of season 5?

Kol had a large engagement ring cut in San Francisco at the end of season 4.

Who does Freya marry in the final season?

She asks Vincent to father their child, and he eventually agrees.

What is the name of the season 5 vampire purist who kidnaps Hayley?

Greta, Antoinette and Roman are all children of the vampire zealot August, whom Klaus killed in the 1930s.

Where was the actor who plays Klaus born?

He grew up in Swansea, Wales, and trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

The actor who plays Elijah grew up in which country?

He was born in Winnipeg but moved to New Zealand at age five.

The actresses who play Rebekah and Hayley first co-starred on which Australian series?

The Originals was the third show the two shared, after H2O and The Vampire Diaries.

Which Originals cast member, of Filipino descent, later played Special Agent Quentin Carter on CBS?

His mother is from Manila and his father from Kentucky.

Danielle Campbell married which former Originals co-star in 2025?

Woodell played Josh's boyfriend Aiden in season 2.

Nathaniel Buzolic, who plays Kol, is from which country?

He hosted the late-night quiz show The Mint before joining The Vampire Diaries.

How many episodes were in the fourth and fifth seasons, compared with 22 in each of the first three?

Both shortened seasons aired as midseason entries.

Marcel was born into what circumstances before Klaus took him in?

Klaus saved the boy from a whipping and raised him as part of the family, later turning him in the early 1800s.

In what year did the Mikaelsons flee the city, leaving Marcel to declare himself king?

They ran from their vengeful father Mikael, who wanted to wipe out vampires.

Which witch possesses Sabine Laurent's body in season 1 and is one of Elijah's greatest loves?

Sophie's discovery of Celeste's grave kicks off the season's witch plot.

Who directed the first episode of season 1?

He also directed the backdoor pilot episode of The Vampire Diaries.

How many packs' venom did Hayley need to collect to cure Freya at the start of season 4?

Lucien's serum had also used venom from all seven New Orleans packs.

Where does Freya keep her sleeping siblings' minds at the end of season 3?

Klaus, daggered and walled into the compound, served as the anchor keeping them alive.

How many years pass between the end of season 4 and the start of season 5?

The siblings have spent that time scattered, each carrying a piece of the Hollow, while Hope has grown into a teenager.

Instead of a traditional pilot, how long was the Legacies presentation Julie Plec delivered to The CW?

The spin-off was ordered to series on May 11, 2018, with Matt Davis starring alongside Aria Shahghasemi and Quincy Fouse.