The Originals‘ end is nigh…ish.
The fifth and final season of the Vampire Diaries spinoff will premiere Friday, April 20 at 9/8c, The CW announced Sunday at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour.
Picking up after another major time jump, the show’s final season will reintroduce Hope Mikaelson as a teenager attending the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted. (Really rolls off the tongue, no?) And although the Mikaelsons were given strict instructions to stay away from one another — you know, for fear of reconstructing the evil Hollow — the siblings are gradually reunited to defeat one last enemy.
“The Big Bad this year is launched from an ideology more so than one singular person’s nefarious desire,” series creator Julie Plec recently told TVLine. It’s an ideology that was spawned almost a century ago, a movement that has been simmering and stewing over that century. It does have a personal connection to the Mikaelson family, but it also has a thematic resonance that is very timely.”
The Originals‘ final season will also introduce several new faces into the mix, including Jaime Murray (Once Upon a Time) as Antoinette, one of Elijah’s new vampire “friends”; Torrance Coombs (Reign) as Declan, a flirty Irish chef who romances Hayley; Jedidiah Goodacre (Descendants) as Roman, a vampire who takes a curious interest in the Mikaelsons; and newcomer Aria Shahghasemi as Landon, a sensitive human who catches Hope’s eye.
Of course, there’s still a possibility that the Mikaelsons’ story could extend beyond The Originals; The CW is currently having “conversations” with Plec about a potential Hope-centric spinoff, though nothing is concrete just yet.