Joseph Morgan, who played Klaus on The Vampire Diaries, has revealed the original intention of a short-lived story arc for the beloved villain. The character ended up receiving his own spin-off, The Originals, which aired for five seasons.
Joseph Morgan first appeared as Niklaus “Klaus” Mikaelson in season 2 of The Vampire Diaries. Klaus began as the main antagonist of TVD, originally coming to Mystic Falls to break a curse he harbored, an act that involved capturing and killing the protagonist, Elena. Though things don’t go quite as planned, throughout his entire stay in Mystic Falls, he brings mostly chaos and bloodshed. Nonetheless, Klaus’ charm, wit, and often hidden tender side—only truly shown to budding romantic interest, Caroline—quickly made him a fan-favorite of the TVD characters, despite his nefarious intentions. Morgan’s charisma and Klaus’ popularity led to the antagonist becoming the protagonist in his own spin-off television show, The Originals. The Originals finds Klaus—who, in addition to belonging to the original vampire family, is also the first werewolf-vampire hybrid—back in New Orleans, a town his family helped build, to quell the tension in the supernatural world that his protégé created while he was away.
However, in a recent interview with Tommy DiDario, Joseph Morgan revealed that Klaus wasn’t supposed to be around for more than four episodes, let alone get his own spin-off show. Morgan admits that although he signed a contract that could have tied him to the show for multiple years, he had no expectations of being around for so long and fully anticipated being killed off at the end of the third season. This is surprising considering Klaus’s indelible mark on the original vampire franchise. In the interview, he credits the fans’ enthusiasm for the character and his enjoyment of portraying Klaus as what led to his extended stay and subsequent spin-off, explaining:
"...From the beginning, it was always thought that Klaus would die at the end of season three. So I would come in at the end of season two, season three would be my big season of being this villain throughout the whole season and then the good guys would defeat me at the end of season three. That's what I wanted as well, because it wasn't my show and I thought: 'Well this is great, I can springboard off this and try and get my own show and keep building my profile and use this as part of that.' Then a few things happened. One was of course the degree of passion with which the fans responded to the character and the other was that I was just having so much fun playing [him] and I always felt that for the character there wasn't enough room to grow in the setting of The Vampire Diaries.”
The Welsh actor doesn’t undersell the fans’ role in Klaus’s longevity, adding that it was the fans’ passionate support and keenness for a spin-off centering around the original vampire family that led the actors—and creator Julie Plec—to really see it as a possibility. Although the world of Mystic Falls continues in the current spin-off Legacies, which centers around Klaus’s daughter, Hope, Klaus’s story ended in The Originals. Most recently, TVD and Originals fans could find Morgan in the 2020 sci-fi television series Brave New World based on the classic 1930s dystopian novel of the same name by Aldous Huxley. Brave New World was canceled after one season on Peacock.
While fans would delight in seeing Klaus one more time, if anything as a flashback in Legacies, Morgan has publicly stated his hesitation to make a cameo on the new spin-off. Although, if anything is clear from Morgan’s telling of The Originals’ origins, it is that audiences have more power in the future of their favorite characters and franchises than they might otherwise think. Fans continue to celebrate the long and satisfying redemption arc of the villain-turned-hero. Fan edits and montages of the characters’ moments throughout the franchise continue to be made and continue to garner millions of views on social media platforms, particularly YouTube. Maybe with enough support, fans of The Vampire Diaries franchise can will Klaus to their screens one more time.
Source: Tommy DiDario