The Vampire Diaries Sires A Spin-Off

The Vampire Diaries is to sire a spin-off, a show concentrating on the Originals – the first vampire family, aka, Klaus and his squabbling siblings.

According to The Hollywood Reporter , the new show will be called The Originals , and will star Joseph Morgan as Klaus and Phoebe Tonkin as Hayley, both crossing over from the parent show. Klaus has been around since season two of The Vampire Diaries and Hayley (who isn’t even a vampire, let alone an Original) was introduced in the latest, fourth season.

Executive producer Julie Plec will write an upcoming episode of The Vampire Diaries that will set up The Originals as a series. From there, she'll serve as showrunner on the new series with Gina Girolamo and Leslie Morgenstein executive producing.

Tonkin certainly seems to have impressed somebody over at Kevin Williamsonville. First she camped and vamped her way through the the swiftly (and mercifully) cancelled The Secret Circle , which Williamson exec produced last year. Then she turned up in a plum recurring guest role in Williamson’s The Vampire Diary (utilising a range of expressions that make you wonder if that old wives’ tale about the wind changing could be true). And now she’s got a starring role in the spin-off even though she’s a werewolf, not a vampire.

But though the Originals have become a bit of a panto threat in The Vampire Diaries , Klaus is massively popular with viewers (he came sixth in our Sexiest Sci-Fi Stars poll ), so you can’t blame The CW for capitalising on that fact.

Juile Plec is also currently developing a US remake of The Tomorrow People .