The Vampire Diaries Spinoff The Originals Casts Its First Human

Just when fans might think The Vampire Diaries spin-off The Originals could not possibly find any room for another central cast member, the backdoor pilot has defied odds. Like The Vampire Diaries, The Originals will be a supernatural pilot with a large ensemble cast, and apparently, the spinoff wants to follow the format of The Vampire Diaries fairly closely and has hired an actress to play a mortal on the show.

Life is Wild actress Leah Pipes has signed on as the lead mortal in The Originals pilot. She’s set to play Camille, a college student who is interested in the intricacies of human behavior. According to THR, Camille has no understanding of the supernatural creatures living in the world—a crew that includes vampires, werewolves, and witches, among others.

The Vampire Diaries has always done a good job of bringing regular humans into its supernatural plotlines, and this seems to be the direction The Originals will be headed, too. However, if the project plans to follow Camille's awakening to the supernatural world, that sort of plotline definitely has the potential to be an outside-the-box idea for the franchise, should The Originals make it to series. The backdoor pilot also stars Daniel Gillies, Phoebe Tonkin, Daniella Pineda, and Michael Davis as supernatural characters, and is set to air during The Vampire Diaries’ April 25th episode. So, if this seems like a project that might be up your alley, tuning in for the April 25 episode of the CW's established supernatural drama is a must.

We’ll let you know if The Originals manages to squeeze any other big characters into its pilot cast.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.