On the CW series The Originals, Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) must turn to Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) for help uncovering information about the mysterious force that has set its sights on the children of New Orleans, so that she can save her daughter, Hope (Summer Fontana). And while Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and Vincent (Yusuf Gatewood) are forced to team up, Freya (Riley Voelkel) and Keelin (Christina Moses) attempt to alter the power dynamic of the city.
During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, showrunner Michael Narducci talked about finding the perfect young actress to play Hope, the growing bond between Hope and Klaus (Joseph Morgan), just how dangerous this new threat will be, Freya’s journey, whether we’ll see Kol (Nathaniel Buzolic) and Rebekah (Claire Holt) again, the purpose of Alaric’s (Matthew Davis) appearance in Episode 408, how impressed he is with the cast members who have also taken on episodes as directors, and how difficult his decision was to leave the show at the end of Season 4.
Collider: Jumping ahead in time meant that you had to find a young actress to portray Hope, who could pull off everything that such a complex role requires of someone so young. Were you worried that you wouldn’t be able to find someone, and how quickly did you find Summer Fontana?
MICHAEL NARDUCCI: We were definitely worried that it would be difficult. If we had not found someone as talented and amazing as Summer, I think we just would have done less with that character. We would have jettisoned her to the periphery of the storyline. We saw so many really talented people, but we saw Summer and she just made us sit up in our seats and really pay attention. And then, we had the chance to meet her and audition her some more. When we brought her on board, especially in Episode 3, we saw how amazing she was with out cast. And then, we knew that we could do what we wanted to do, which is to not focus too much on one character, but to have her be a part of what was going on in the family, in a very important way. She delivered beautifully, throughout the season, so we just got tremendously lucky. I will say that I think Summer Fontana is a huge star.
What can we expect from the growing bond between Hope and Klaus, as they continue to get to know each other?
NARDUCCI: The very first instinct was to portray that moment where the loving daughter looks at her dad and says, “I know you’re going to protect me, no matter what, and I appreciate that and I’m glad you’re here,” and then there’s the hug that we’ve all been wanting to see. But, there are other elements of being a family. There’s the moment when your child gets sick, for the first time. There’s the moment when you don’t know what’s best for them and you’re struggling to figure it out. There’s the moment when your child asks you questions that are difficult to answer, particularly questions about right and wrong, given that Klaus has a, shall we say, very flexible notion of right and wrong. It’s going to force not just Klaus but everybody to look differently at some of the moral choices that they’ve made, and they’ll either double down on the prospect of family above all, or maybe consider whether this is the kind of life that they want Hope to have. We spent all of Season 3 dramatizing the concept that anyone who gets in the orbit of the Mikaelsons is going to suffer and die. That’s the Mikaelson curse. Do we want Hope to grow up to be someone where anyone that comes into her orbit will die, because then we’ve just passed the curse onto this little girl, or do we want to help protect her and give her a fighting chance at a real life? That’s one of the big questions that I’m interested in exploring.
Saying “I’m going to keep you safe, always and forever” is a big promise to give someone, especially in a world like this. Can Klaus keep Hope safe from whatever this threat is, that’s after her and the other children?
NARDUCCI: Well, if I just said no, that would be really depressing. And if I said yes, than I don’t know if you’ve got any motive to continue watching. So, I will say that it’s much more complicated than a yes or no answer.
When I spoke to Phoebe Tonkin recently, she told me that the big threat this year is probably the most dangerous threat that these characters have seen or heard about, in their entire lives. What can you say about exactly what this threat is and what we’ll start to learn about it, in the next couple of episodes?
NARDUCCI: I’ll say that the rate of revelation, in terms of the knowledge you will gain about this entity, is going to be very fast. So far, we really don’t know anything. We know there’s a blue light. We know there’s this bizarre image of a snake or serpent eating its own tail, that continues to appear. We know that this thing affected Vincent and Eva Sinclair, years and years ago, and now it seems to have a hold on the gentleman who, in Episode 3, was holding the children captive, and it certainly seems to have had an affect on Detective Will Kinney, who is behaving in a way that is different from how he behaved before. It’s going to start off almost like a ghost that has influenced and is very selfish, and that wants what it wants and will do anything to get it. From there, we’re going to begin to see this thing take on a form. Once it takes on a form, you can expect that it’s going to be very dangerous.
When you have more alpha personalities in one place than is probably healthy for anyone, with the Mikaelsons, Hayley, Marcel and Vincent, can they find a way to work together effectively, where they see eye to eye, or will they also have conflict amongst each other, while they try to figure out how to handle this?
NARDUCCI: What you just pointed out is one of the challenges of working on this show. There are so many different strong personalities, and nobody is going to back down from what they believe in. Right now, they’re diametrically opposed. That’s really frightening. Some of these people should be on the same team, especially given the threat that they’re facing, but they can’t get over some of their past grievances. But, I think that’s an opportunity for new alliances to emerge and for people to argue in favor of their own point of view. That’s what I love, when you have two characters on your screen, in a scene together, and they’re both arguing, but they’re both right and they both have a point of view that is valid. Right now, if you have Klaus and Marcel in a scene together, they both have a perspective that is, in their own minds, correct, and I want to see that scene. I also want to see what happens when Marcel comes face to face with Hayley, and when Marcel comes face to face with Elijah, and when Marcel comes face to face with Hope. All of those things are going to happen.
What can you say about Freya and what her journey will be?
NARDUCCI: I saw a little bit of backlash against Freya online, and I thought that was interesting. To me, Freya is perfectly justified, in terms of what she’s doing. It’s not morally right, but from the vantage point of a 1,000-year-old witch who wanted, more than anything, to return to the family that she was stolen away from, she’s found and protected her family, and now there’s someone out there that can kill them. She doesn’t know Marcel. Klaus has a long history with Marcel. Rebekah has a long history with Marcel. Elijah has a long history with Marcel. Freya doesn’t know Marcel that well. Freya knows that Marcel can kill her family. If someone threatened to kill your mom or dad, or your son or daughter, you would stop at nothing to neutralize that person. That’s the path that she’s on, right now. She’s motivated to find a way to take care of the problem that threatens her family, and I believe that that is very much in character. Whether or not she begins to evolve and change and decide there’s a different course of action to take, I think that’s absolutely what we want to play with, as the season goes on. I will also say that her partnership with Keelin is really great. They have a tremendous rapport. Those two actresses are very fun together. Keelin is very worldly and contemporary, and Freya is timeless. She’s a witch. She’s a little bit bizarre and out there. Even when we first introduced Freya, in the witch’s mental asylum, she was a little bit bizarre. She watched cartoons, for the first time. She’s an interesting character, and those two playing off of each other is really fun. I love seeing them together, and they have a great journey to go on.
Might we see Kol and Rebekah again, anytime soon, or at least sometime this season?
NARDUCCI: I promise you that absolutely you will. We have Kol and Rebekah for about half of the season. We have 13 episodes, so you can expect them to be in at least six. They’ve been in two already, and they’re going to be in more.
We know that Alaric will be on Episode 8 this season. What brings him to town and what business will he have with the Mikaelsons?
NARDUCCI: The only thing I’ll say is that Alaric was establish, in Season 1 of The Vampire Diaries, as a teacher, an educator and a person that understood the supernatural, and who had spent a long time investigating the supernatural because his wife had disappeared and ostensibly been taken by Damon. So, here comes Alaric, and he’s got this encyclopedic knowledge of the supernatural. He knows all of the ins and outs of what’s going on in Mystic Falls and he was able to interpret the petroglyphs on the wall that outlined the history of the Mikaelsons. So, they may be calling upon Alaric to help answer some questions, and he might prove to be even more helpful than we might have expected.
It was nice to be reminded of the Klaus-Cami dynamic this season, and to hear how much Kol misses Davina. Are you always thinking about ways to pay some remembrance to those past characters and how important they were?
NARDUCCI: It’s not that we set out to pay service to them. It’s just that, if you’re being true to character, that is a big part of who these people are. Of course, Kol is still going to think about Davina. Of course, Marcel is still going to think about Davina. If you see Klaus tormented to the point of agony and his mind is shutting down, what might happen? Well, he might, in his delusion, remember the person who once gave him solace and who was not only a love, but a therapist, a friend, a coach, and someone who was his moral compass and demanded that he be his best version of himself. That’s who Klaus needed to be, in Episode 2. He needed to be the best version of himself, so he could pull that Tunde blade out of his chest, and I don’t think there’s a person, other than Cami, who could help him arrive at that place.
Joseph Morgan, Daniel Gillies and Charles Michael Davis are all directing episodes of the show now. How have you found working with them, in that capacity?
NARDUCCI: I want to say that they each did phenomenal jobs. People ask, “What performance impressed you the most this year?,” and I can talk about acting performances, all day. But the fact that these three actors did double duty and also were directors just blows my mind. Joseph directed for us last year and did an amazing job, and this season, he had a very technically difficult episode, which you’ll see this Friday. There’s a lot going on, with a lot of different storylines and a lot of scenes to cram into a single episode, and Joe is just tenacious. He will not stop until he gets it right, and I really valued that about working with him. With Charles, he became a student of directing, even in Season 1. He would follow directors and sit in on production meetings and really study how to be the best director possible, and all of that education paid off. Charles has one of our most emotional episodes of the season. There’s at least three scenes in Charles’ episode that, every time I see them, and I’ve seen them dozens and dozens of times, they make me emotional. Daniel also had an extremely difficult episode. He’s directed before. He’s directed his own film that he wrote. But it’s a different thing when you have to direct on television, on a tight schedule. It required him to know, backwards and forwards, the chronology of the Mikaelsons and all of the history and everything that our show does well. Daniel is someone who, every time he arrives for a meeting to discuss his character or a script, has got so many ideas and he’s so passionate about elevating the material. It’s impossible for Daniel Gillies to phone in something. Every single time he works, I’ve never seen him give up. He always tries to make things as good as they could possibly be, and he does that as a director, even more so.
Without knowing whether or not the show would be back for Season 5, how difficult was it for you to decide to leave The Originals, as the showrunner, at the end of this season? Was that something that you had to think a lot about?
NARDUCCI: Yeah. It’s kind of a personal question, but I will say that it was very difficult. I love Julie [Plec]. I love our staff of writers, I’m very close with them, and I admire them greatly. I think it’s because I love and respect everybody so much that I felt like I could leave and I would sleep well because I know these characters that I love so much are in great hands. But it was a situation where I had been on the show and done four seasons, and I got a great opportunity to go somewhere else. I thought a lot about my own family and creatively where I am, and I thought this was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. I really do love The Originals. I’m very proud of the stories we’ve told, over the course of these four seasons. I think the actors are tremendous. I think our crew is, without question, the best I’ve worked with. As I’m struggling to find the words as I talk to you, it was a very emotional choice and a very difficult choice, but I’m happy with the way things turned out and I’m really excited. I was able to write the finale knowing that it was going to be my last episode of the show, and with the help of our writers, our crew and our cast, I think we created a game-changing episode. If it’s the last episode of the season or the last episode of the series, for me, it’s my last episode and I’m proud of it.
The Originals airs on Friday nights on The CW.
