The CW will host a crossover between “The Vampire Diaries” and “The Originals” this season, which was revealed Sunday morning by the network’s president Mark Pedowitz at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif.
Soon after Pedowitz announced the crossover, Variety spoke with the shows’ creator Julie Plec about the specific storyline that will occur during the crossover episodes.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a really long time and find a way to do it that didn’t feel like we were jamming story for the sake of cross-pollinating the shows,” Plec told Variety at TCA.
She continued: “So we’re sitting in the room, and the plot point is that Stefan (Paul Wesley) is in trouble and he’s being pursued by means of magic so how can we get him safe? Well, let’s get him to a place where there’s no magic. And I was like, ‘Oh sh-t! St. James Infirmary! There’s a place where there’s no magic that can work in New Orleans!’ And the whole writer’s room just went, “Yay! Finally!” because they’ve been waiting so long for that opportunity.”
The crossover will span over two separate episodes, one for each of the shows — both in episode no. 14 of the respective series.
“Stefan will go to New Orleans in a ‘Vampire Diaries’ episode and then he will remain in New Orleans in ‘The Originals’ to help Klaus (Joseph Morgan) deal with a problem that is super specific to Stefan’s survival,” Plec explained.
As for any other characters who may be involved in the crossover? “There is a presence of Caroline (Candice King) buried within that, but I can’t really say in what context.”
As for the future of “The Vampire Diaries,” which had its first run without star Nina Dobrev this season, Plec says she potentially sees a long road ahead.
“My end game needs to, in my opinion, emotionally run parallel with the end game of Paul and Ian (Somehalder) — more so than the network and the studio,” Plec said. “When those boys decide that they’re done telling stories — which could be tomorrow and could be a year from now or two years from now or whatever — I need to be done. I feel like I owe them that and I owe the show that. It’s a collective decision. Right now, they’re in the driver’s seat of that and we’ll see how much longer they feel like they want to be doing this.”
When asked if she can see “Vampire Diaries” continuing for seasons to come, Plec confirmed yes, saying: “Yeah, absolutely. Every year we’re like, ‘We’ll never figure out what next year is going to be!’ And then we come up with an idea that’s cooler. It gets harder and harder so there will come a point where I’ll have to say I have zero ideas left, but right now, I still feel pretty inspired by it so I’m just taking it one day at a time.”
Speaking to her view on the series without Dobrev, Plec explains that she would welcome her former star back at any time, but has felt a creative revival with the show’s new direction.
“On an emotional level, it’s sad because she’s Nina and she was Elena and we all love her and loved that character, but on a creative level, it’s been refreshing in ways that I cannot even explain,” Plec explained. “To be able to sit and not have to break a story from the point of view of, how does this advance the love triangle this week? It just feels good to be able to tell the story about two brothers who are more bonded and, as such, at odds more than ever before, and you’re writing this terrific relationship piece now about these two guys, and it’s just been so fun to write this year. The writers, we’re just enjoying the hell out of it. Yes, I miss her deeply and would take her back in an instant if she called and said, ‘Hey, can I come back and play?’ But purely from a creative point of view, it’s been a real new infusion of creative fun.”
At TCA, Pedowitz told reporters that there have been no decisions made of “Vampire Diaries'” future, but he’s optimistic. “Hopefully, as long as possible,” he said when asked how long the series could continue. “We are hopeful that the show in its move to Friday continues what it does do really great with ‘The Originals’ also– they triple their numbers in Live +7 consistently so there’s a lot of delayed viewing on the show. So if it continues and we see the performance that we’ve been seeing, hopefully it gets a renewal.”
