‘Vampire Diaries’ and ‘The Originals’ Casts Talk Death and Dating at PaleyFest

On March 22, the casts and producers of the CW drama “The Vampire Diaries” and its spinoff “The Originals” hosted back-to-back PaleyFest panels at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood to talk about their craft for killing, kiss scenes and conniving plans — the second of which being by far the most interesting to fans, who treated the event like a modern-day Beatles concert. Amidst the screams from the audience, those on stage gave some helpful insight into both shows:

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“The Originals” was going to be set in Chicago instead of New Orleans.
Julie Plec, who exec produces both shows, said the original “Originals” plan was to go back to Chicago, where there had already been some story with Claire Holt’s original vampire sister Rebekah from her time on “Vampire Diaries,” but that idea was scrapped when they realized they wanted to film in Atlanta and the two cities don’t look alike.
Instead, co-exec producer Michael Narducci said the idea for a New Orleans-set spinoff flowed freely when they visited the Crescent City and made use of its liberal open container laws.
Joseph Morgan and Daniel Gillies, who play original vampire brothers (well, Morgan’s character is a vampire-werewolf hybrid) were pushing for an “Originals” spinoff.
They would send Plec pictures of what they thought the show would be like. See more