Pilots Take Leaf Out of Vampire Diaries

Tonight’s season premiere of The Vampire Diaries (TV2, 10.30) coincides with news of star Claire Holt (Rebekah) landing her own spin-off series, The Originals.

The backdoor pilot for the sister show will be Diaries’ April 25 episode in the US; Joseph Morgan (Klaus) and Phoebe Tonkin (Hayley) will co-star.

According to the publicity, “The Originals centres on the Original family of vampires, as Klaus returns to the supernatural melting pot that is the French Quarter of New Orleans — a town he helped build centuries ago — and is reunited with his diabolical former protégé Marcel (Charles Michael Davis).”

Deadline reports The Originals leads an upsurge in vampire dramas that includes:

• NBC’s Dracula, which has been commissioned without a pilot (The Tudors’ Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars);
• Starz developing Vlad Dracula with Spartacus’ Rob Tapert;
• Showtime ordering as a series Penny Dreadful, in which Dracula heads an ensemble of “literature’s most famously terrifying characters”; and
• ABC greenlighting the pilot Gothica, a modern-day take on classic horror characters.

Meanwhile, Dairies and two of TV2’s other fantasy series, Supernatural and the mid-season drawcard Arrow, this week were renewed for another year.

Also resuming tonight is Once Upon a Time (TV2, 8.30), with the town of Storybrooke awakening from the Evil Queen’s curse.

TV Guide’s Matt Roush warned of a “dark” creative side to season two.

“Last season, I found myself much more entranced with the revisionist back-stories in Fairy Land than what was going on in Storybrooke.

“This season, with flatly played new characters introduced in the world of fantasy, I found myself itching to get back to Storybrooke, although the way the lands eventually intersect makes for a nifty cliffhanger.”