The Originals - Young Elijah Casting

Perry Cox has been cast to play the role of Elijah Mikaelson as a child. He will appear in 1x16 "Farewell To Storyville".

The Originals - Daniel Gillies Interview

The Originals - First Episode To Be Told From Elijah's Point Of View

Though there are already two versions of the first episode of The CW's newest series, "The Originals," -- the backdoor pilot that aired in April as an episode of "The Vampire Diaries"and the extended cut released online -- get ready to see the story of the pilot re-told all over again. "The Vampire Diaries" spinoff's first installment is being re-shot from the point of view of Elijah (Daniel Gillies), executive producer Julie Plec and star Leah Pipes revealed.

"We're re-filming the pilot from Elijah's persepective. You get to see what was happening around what you already saw in the pilot which is really interesting," Pipes, who plays human psychology student Camille, told Zap2it. "That's going to be the first episode that airs. It's going to be the extended cut, from a new perspective. And then we jump about a month ahead in the next episode."

So why go through the trouble of re-shooting the entire first episode to tell the same story? Plec says it gave the writers the opportunity to show even more. "It's so cool because what it does is tells you everything that happened while we were off watching Klaus do his thing and meet up with Marcel and try to get to the bottom of his own mystery. It's a story of a brother coming to town to try and figure out what happened and what's going on with his younger black sheep brother. So Elijah's playing detective a bit. We get to see flashes of scenes that existed in the pilot but more from Elijah's point of view."

Plec is excited for fans to see how the events of the pilot -- i.e. werewolf Hayley's (Phoebe Tonkin) pregnancy -- affect Elijah. "He believes when he learns of the pregnancy, 'Of course that it will be that easy for Klaus to jump on board,'" Plec said. "To watch Elijah declare how simple it will be to then watch Klaus reject the idea of the baby will be his powerful moment, as opposed to what was in the original pilot, which was Klaus' powerful moment."

So when will we get to see what happens after the events of the pilot? "By the last act, we're moving past that night and everything we see is new and really tees up the series beautifully," Plec said. "We actually are doing a bit of a time jump. In episode two, Rebekah [Claire Holt] shows up and she's been to Europe and she's done that whole thing so our timelines will sink up with "TVD". That will offer us some crossover opportunities."

The Originals - What We Know So Far...

"The Vampire Diaries" is a fan-favorite at San Diego Comic-Con, and now its spinoff "The Originals" made its big premiere with its first-ever panel. Some new video was shown, but the bulk of the panel focused on introducing these familiar and new characters to the audience in attendance beyond what they saw in "The Originals'" backdoor pilot.

In addition to a sizzle reel, an alternate ending featuring a witch locked up in an attic by Marcel was screened that showed a different taste of the direction "The Originals" is taking. Plec promises this character is one of the big mysteries in Season 1 that will be dealt with right off the bat. The pilot was already shown on preview night, but it turns out that the show's actual first episode will be a retelling of what fans saw back in April.

"Elijah goes to New Orleans to figure out what his brother is up to," showrunner Julie Plecteases. "We'll see similar scenes and moments that we didn't get to see in the pilot."

Rebekah won't appear in New Orleans until episode 2 because she has her own story to finish. "She's still hoochin' it up with Matt Donovan," Plec says. Rebekah will also appear in the premiere episode of "The Vampire Diaries," which will see her storyline with Matt come to a close. "Something will bring her to new Orleans in the second episode with an ... agenda," Plec says.

Rebekah isn't the only one leaving someone behind in Mystic Falls. Elijah also had to say farewell to Katherine. "I 100 percent thinks he still has feelings for Katherine, but the level of his devotion to his family comes first," Daniel Gillies says of Elijah's departure.

Then there are Klaroline fans, who aren't super happy about Klaus having a new baby mama. Expect that the Klaus and Caroline relationship will still be dealt with. "It's not like she doesn't exist," Plec says. "If anything she's sort of like the Buffy to his Angel. She made an impact on him." Joseph Morgan adds of the seeming end of that relationship, "It's all I hear about."

Beyond the original vampires in "The Originals," Marcel will also be put front and center.Charles Michael Davis' new character will be explored through flashbacks all through Season 1, with the first few episodes looking into how Marcel and Klaus first met and then watch Marcel "grow from a boy to a man."

Phoebe Tonkin throws a wrench in "The Originals" storyline as her werewolf character Hayley is pregnant with Klaus' child. Plec says that romance might not necessarily follow the one night stand-turned-parenthood, but at least both characters have a bond. For Morgan, something a bit different brought Klaus to Hayley.

"He's had two and a half seasons of celibacy, so he has some pent up energy," Morgan jokes. "I got away with two seasons of having a shirt on 'The Vampire Diaries.' I think that's got to be a record."

When a fan asked whether Klaus and Hayley's baby will be a hybrid or some new creature, Plec hedged and says, "I obviously can't give an answer to that." Still, she gave an answer of swords, saying, "I think that everybody will have their own opinion about what this baby and what it means." She continues, "There will be a million supernatural debates. ... It will be part of the fun of waiting for it to be born."

All Holt wants, though, is for it to be a "husky puppy." We'll be the first to second that.

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The Originals Spoiler From TV Guide - 16th July 2013

Anything on The Originals?

We'll soon find out that Katherine wasn't the only woman who came between Klaus and Elijah. Back in the 1800s, Klaus was entangled with a stunning Creole woman named Celeste, who also had a fondness for Elijah, who wasn't as busy as his brother keeping the residents of New Orleans in check. I'm sure that'll end well!

Spoiler From Zap2It - 1st April 2013

Klaus, Rebekah, and Elijah will be heading to New Orleans in Episode 20 this season for "The Originals" spin-off episode... but that doesn't mean they're just going to stay in NoLa, killing time and waiting for the fall TV season. We can tell you that Episode 20 isn't the last we'll see of Klaus this season on "The Vampire Diaries." Unfinished business in Mystic Falls, perhaps?

Daniel Gillies Talks Originals Spin-off Dreams

Fans were thrilled when it was announced Elijah would be returning tonight. First, what's it like to have created a character people are passionate about?
I'm completely bewildered by it, to be honest. I feel immensely grateful, obviously, but I don't know how you make sense of that kind of passionate adoration. It's immensely gratifying and really humbling.

What brings him back to Mystic Falls?
It's his brother -- it always is [laughs]. Elijah can maintain a low profile for only so long, and he's spent the better part of a millennium in pursuit of his brother and tidying up his little disasters. This is no exception. This race/contest for the cure necessitates his presence in Mystic Falls.

As a character, do you find him easy to segue in and out of?
It's always difficult to get back into the groove of a character. Elijah is very specific and I made some really distinctive choices in creating him because there was no real guidelines at the outset, so it's a little bit of a gearshift to slide back into Elijah. Honestly, it takes me 2 or 3 episodes in a row to be firing on all cylinders, but I've been doing this job for long enough that I won't let anybody see behind the curtain, as it were.

What was your reaction to getting the spin-off phonecall?
The idea has sort of been ruminating for some time. It's been two years since I started hearing Julie Plec's quiet aspirations, which then became overtures to the network, which then became a full-on assault [laughs]. There's always a sense of disbelief. Even when I was filming the pilot, I didn't quite believe it. We're so blessed to do this. I mean, it's enormous. The show already has such a built-in following. This opportunity is huge.

Did you feel more pressure filming this show than you did any other pilot you've made?
I won't lie to you, there were a lot of voices when we shot the pilot. As there should be. It's expensive and everyone wants to do it right. I felt more pressure filming that episode than I've felt filming anything else. I can understand that pressure, but that crew is so good about supporting your creativity that I'm excited to see what could happen next.

Did you guys have fun filming in New Orleans?
That was a strange concept. You're in the most decadent place on earth, but you're doing something that requires all your professional fortitude [laughs]. Luckily, this was the fourth time I'd been in New Orleans this year -- I went for New Year's with my wife, for the Super Bowl, which was extraordinary, courtesy of Beyonce and then a third time, so I'd done my share of bacchanalian nonsense and by the time I got to set, I was already in my third episode of The Vampire Diaries, so I had a good stride. But it's distracting. That town has this frequency of mischief that is wonderful -- not only visually for the pilot, but it penetrates everything.

Tonally, how does the show compare to The Vampire Diaries?
It doesn't feel like another episode of The Vampire Diaries. You're taken to another world with another mythology, another web of trouble and danger. Julie did a lovely thing by book-ending the episode with our heroes in Mystic Falls, so fans won't be left feeling insulted. She wasn't irreverent, but she had to take us away from there in order to introduce this whole other element. I think she did it really beautifully, poetically, successfully and sexily.

What excites you about the spin-off's potential?
The advantage the show carries is that, because Klaus, Rebekah and Elijah have been alive for a millennium, we can bounce all over time. Different timelines mean different things in different regions of the world. Because they're invulnerable, it makes everything kind of fun -- if people are falling in the streets because of the Bubonic Plague, it's awful, but they're resilient. Or if you take them to the time when Jack the Ripper is threatening the streets, that could be kind of amazing. I would love to see them as they develop their powers, I'd love to take them to Asia. I would love to see what they could do in The Middle East or among The Vikings -- although I might regret some of these answers when we're placed on a ship for two months traveling to these places, but it's all so exciting.

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The Originals: The Redemption Of Klaus & The Unraveling Of Elijah?

Daniel Gillies’ Elijah returns to The Vampire Diaries tonight, and as he’s already teased for us, Elijah’s going to “shock and possibly even horrify.” That’s something fans might need to get comfortable with…

In the issue of Entertainment Weekly hitting stands Friday, we have the exclusive first look at the April 25 backdoor pilot for the Originals spin-off. When Klaus (Joseph Morgan) gets word that witches in New Orleans — a town now run by his protégé Marcel (The Game‘s Charles Michael Davis) — are conspiring against him, he goes to the French Quarter to explore the threat and Elijah follows. What they find is an opportunity to reunite their family in a city they helped settle, but the larger arc for the show might surprise fans even more: “With luck, over a long stretch of time and many, many seasons,” Plec says, “The Originals will ultimately be the redemption tale of Klaus and, possibly, the unraveling of Elijah, who is going to have to maybe get his hands dirty in an effort to keep his brother in check.”

As she’s stated before, it was producers’ appreciation for Gillies’ controlled turn as noble Elijah that birthed the idea of an Original family in season 2 (as initially conceived, he and Klaus weren’t brothers). Gillies says he’s excited to see whatever future the writers script for Elijah, but frankly, he’s more interested in how they could exploit the millennium-old Originals’ pasts. “I’d like to see more of what they’ve uncovered about being vampires, whether that’s flight, or jumping, or invisibility. Those are the supernatural abilities,” he says, “and then you’ve got the abilities that you could learn within a thousand years: What instruments do they play? What degree have they earned in a certain type of kung fu? Which one of them ice sculpts? I’d love to see the extent of their knowledge and skill.”

Klaus, on the other hand, was never supposed to survive season 3: “He was the big bad. You don’t let the big bad live. The big bad’s gotta go, otherwise your heroes start to look foolish for being unable to destroy him,” Plec says. One full season of Klaus was all Morgan wanted too, at first. “I thought that’s sort of enough, because where can it go from there? I don’t want him to turn good and hanging out at the Mystic Grill,” he recalls. But then came Klaus’ teary-eyed, fatal standoff with Mikael in season 3′s ninth episode. “It was one of the first chances I had to really show another side to Klaus entirely with someone who had persecuted him all of his life and where some of that hatred and evil comes from,” Morgan says. “That was when I started to think there’s something in this. He’s not just there as a device to serve the hero’s story line.” (Luckily, he mentioned that to the show’s line producer. “And he said, ‘You know, you should tell Julie because everybody’s under the impression that you want to be done after this season,’” Morgan says.)

“The choice to keep Klaus past season 3,” Plec adds, “was truly born out of how magnificent Joseph is and how much the audience was connecting to him in spite of hating him. They loved to hate him. So knowing that we had a character that powerful, and that there was a spin-off opportunity there, it let us spend season 4 getting Klaus to the place where the character was ready to be the lead of another show. He’s a villain whose family and the people in his life are constantly searching for ways to find redemption for him, and he’s constantly fighting against that instinct. So now, with luck, we get to make a whole series about it.”

And how does Morgan feel now about the possibility of Klaus being saved? “I can say I trust the writers a lot more than I did initially,” he admits, laughing again. “I know wherever they take Klaus, it will be layers on the character that he already is. It won’t be a sudden change of direction where he’s suddenly good. He will always have done these terrible things which he has done, and so he will always have these things to haunt him. I think he possibly is capable of redemption, if there was someone understanding enough to forgive him…. It would be a tremendous character arc.”

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Daniel Gillies On Elijah's Return

In next week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries, Elijah is back. “There’s been a lot of talk about what I’m returning for and to do,” Daniel Gillies says. The episode’s synopsis simply states that Elena has a “surprising encounter” with Elijah in Pennsylvania, where she and Rebekah are headed in their search for Katherine and the cure. “All I can say is tune in,” Gillies says, “because Elijah’s gonna shock and possibly even horrify a few. In fact, I’ll say he’s gonna horrify many. But franky, I don’t care. I think what he’s doing is wonderful.”

Exec producer Julie Plec is even more vague: “The first glimpse of Elijah, your heart explodes, you’re so happy to see him. And he is quintessential Elijah, dressed in his beautiful suit with his lovely demeanor, and, as always, trying to find ways to keep Klaus in his place and keep his family together.” (That’s also what Elijah will be doing in the April 25 episode, which serves as the backdoor pilot for the Originals spinoff.)

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Spoiler From TV Line - 26th February 2013

Any scoop on the upcoming Klaus sex scene on The Vampire Diaries?

There will be blood ink. Teases exec producer Julie Plec of the anticipated coitus session in Episode 16 (airing March 14): “I will say that Joseph Morgan has some tattoos that I didn’t know he had until shooting this scene.” (BTW, Plec wouldn’t say if his partner in fornication was someone we’ve met before).

Any scoop on Elijah’s Vampire Diaries return?

Plec confirms that viewers will get “a little Elijah flavor” before the planted Originals spin-off airs in April. “It’ll be fun to have him back in our Mystic Falls universe,” she adds. “We finally get a sense of what he’s been doing during his whole absence from our world.”

Can you give us any Vampire Diaries scoop on Silas?

Plec will eventually put a face to the name, telling TVLine, “We do plan at some point to meet the real Silas.”

Spoiler From Zap2It - 18th February 2013

Our not-so-merry band of monsters is currently stuck on an island off the coast of Nova Scotia, and that's not the only traveling outside of Mystic Falls they'll be doing this season. The Atlanta set of "The Vampire Diaries" has recently been transformed into both a bustling NYC street, and a festival in Pennsylvania. Katherine may have committed the ultimate crime against Elena, but after she snagged the cure, she's not going to disappear again. We can expect her to stick around long enough for her to come face-to-face with Elijah. Could there be a centuries-old romance rekindled?

Elijah To Return In 4x18

Fans of Daniel Gillies' ever-honorable Original vamp Elijah were thrilled to learn that Gillies has signed on to be a series regular cast member on "The Originals," the potential "Vampire Diaries" spin-off series. The backdoor pilot for the new show will air on April 25, as an episode of "TVD." In addition to Gillies, fans can expect to see Joseph Morgan, Claire Holt, and Phoebe Tonkin in that episode.

But the news just keeps on getting better! Zap2it has confirmed that Gillies will be making his return to Mystic Falls even earlier than that, in Episode 418. We previously learned that Elijah was so ashamed of his warring siblings that he wanted nothing to do with them, but it looks like something will change his mind.

The question is, will he come to town to repair his relationship with his siblings, or is he more interested in the ever-elusive cure? One thing is for sure -- both Klaus and Rebekah could use a little of Elijah's wisdom at this point.

Daniel Gillies And The Originals Spin-Off

As fans know, writer-producer Julie Plec’s upcoming backdoor-pilot episode of Vampire Diaries will serve as the launch pad for a potential spin-off series and will be set in the present day. But if greenlit to series, she also hopes to include regular flashbacks going back decades or even centuries, possibly quite like the flagship show. “It will be about both the contemporary story — where we are now and what we are up to — and also will flash back to show what the f–k happened to us to bring us to this moment,” said co-star Daniel Gillies on the red carpet for EW’s annual SAG party in Los Angeles last weekend.

Sources close to the show say Plec’s current plan is to use flashbacks to explore New Orleans up through the early 20th Century when Klaus and his family left the city behind. It’s yet not clear, however, how frequent those flashbacks will be and whether the storytelling style will ultimately be different than Vampire Diaries. For instance, The CW’s Arrow flashes back to Oliver Queen’s five years spent marooned on an island in each episode, while TVD semi-regularly uses flashbacks, including to tell the origin story of The Original Family in the show’s third season.

“Julie Plec has been talking about this for a little while and to be honest with you, I never thought it was going to become a reality,” Gillies added about the spinoff. “I just thought it was a cool idea she threw around and I did not dare to dream that it would come to fruition. I knew that if it did, we would be a part of it, but I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. But I feel very blessed that it is closer to becoming a reality now.”
Gillies also joked about the number of times his character Elijah has gotten staked on the show. “Four times I got staked so far,” he said. “I was always like, “What the f–k? Why do you keep staking me? What’s wrong with Elijah? Is it his jackets?” Hopefully in the spinoff there will be no more staking for Elijah.”

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Daniel Gillies To Join Originals In Spin Off Show

More Originals are coming to The Vampire Diaries spin-off!
Daniel Gillies is set to reprise his role as Elijah, one of the Original family members in The Originals, TVGuide.com has learned.

The upcoming April 25 episode of Diaries will serve as a backdoor pilot for a potential spin-off series that would focus on the Original family. The pilot will follow Klaus (Joseph Morgan) back to the supernatural melting pot that is the French Quarter of New Orleans — a town he helped build centuries ago — where he's reunited with his diabolical former protégé Marcel. Elijah, intent on helping his self-destructive brother find redemption, must side with Marcel's enemies in order to keep Klaus in line.
The potential series would be in second position for Gillies, who is a series regular on Saving Hope, the Canadian series that NBC yanked before its first season ended when it aired last summer. However, CTV announced a second season for summer 2013 in Canada.

Should the episode prove successful, a spin-off of Diaries would be in consideration for next season that would be written and executive-produced by Julie Plec, alongside Alloy's Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo. Phoebe Tonkin, who plays werewolf Hayley on Diaries, would also star on the series.

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Short Interview With Daniel Gillies - Video

Daniel Gillies Teases His Return To Season 4

Things are going to get a bit crazy when "The Vampire Diaries" returns for its fourth season on October 11. There's the fact that you know who became a vampire, a certain someone has possessed another certain someone, and Elena has seemingly picked one Salvatore brother over the other.

But while we're interested in the resolution of all of those plot points, we're also curious what the status of the Original Family is now that everyone thinks Klaus is dead (like it ever would be that easy). We recently had the chance to catch up with Daniel Gillies, the actor who plays brother Elijah, and asked him what we can expect from the Original vampire siblings in the coming season. Consider this your cue to stop reading if you aren't caught up on "The Vampire Diaries."

Daniel revealed that he had just come back from "The Vampire Diaries" set where he filmed a flashback scene set in the 11th century. He wouldn't dish what it was about, but he did say fans should "buckle up and get ready for wigs."

"I've had so many numerous haircuts on this thing. I feel like an accessory sometimes," he joked. "I feel like the Potato Head-vampire. I think this was my fifth hairstyle? And as we venture further through history, we're only going to find more absurdities upon my crown. The second to last one I had I adored, because I sort of looked somewhere between a Viking and an elf. This last one I looked like a roadie for the Grateful Dead in the 11th century."

Though Daniel is balancing his time on "The Vampire Diaries" with his other show "Saving Hope," he doesn't think Elijah will be going anywhere any time soon. Writer and executive producer Julie Plec has made it clear to Daniel that there's a role for him on "The Vampire Diaries" as long as he's around.

"Julie's been very generous, and I'm sure, as often as they can use me, they will," he said. "As long as there's 'Vampire Diaries,' there has to be Elijah. He's too woven into the fabric of it now. One cannot exist without the other."

When we mentioned that other characters have seemed to have the same sort of security—like, say, Elena's Aunt Jenna or our favorite vampire hunter Alaric—Daniel seemed to imply that he still wouldn't get the boot any time soon. And if he does, he just won't speak to Julie any time soon (his words, not ours).

"Elijah is going to be back, and what role do we expect him to play? I think Elijah brings order. Whenever he returns, shit gets done," Daniel explained. "He's sort of the stabilizer. There's always a shift in the equilibrium. I think he's the only one who can truly sort of restrain his brother. I think he's the only one with the dignity/lucidity to be able to strategize a way out of Mystic Falls and into some sort of sanctuary for their family. I'm not saying that's what he's going to do, I'm saying that's what he's capable of. I think if the family listened to Elijah, they'd be in an excellent place to position themselves in this very contemporary world that wants them all gone."

Klaus has been the main villain of "The Vampire Diaries" for more than a season and a half now, and it doesn't look like that will change any time soon. Now that he has possessed Tyler (and no one other than Bonnie knows about it), there's a good deal more drama that needs to be sorted out before Klaus can be defeated for good (if he ever can). But does that necessarily mean that a new villain won't step in to fill his shoes?

"A rising thing is a passing thing. So I mean, you're always in some sort of transition," Daniel said. "I think it would be arrogant and sort of naïve to assume that there won't be something else that would come to sort of eclipse the Originals in terms of this threat, because there's always a new menace— there has to be—to maintain an audience's interest. But I don't think the Originals are going to go anywhere for a little while."

Maybe that villain could be the new vampire hunter Julie said is coming to town, but it also could be the newly minted vampire version of Elena. Daniel teased that things have changed a lot on set ever since Nina Dobrev got her fangs.

"Nina Dobrev has become vicious. She's become a vicious, horrible diva. I can't even describe it," Daniel dead-panned. "She's driven to set even when it's indoors... Nobody's allowed to look at her. You have to look at the ground between takes... We end up doing most of our work to a green screen or to a tennis ball held in one of the assistant's hands. It's become nightmarish."

All joking aside, Daniel admitted that there is an air of confidence on the set of "The Vampire Diaries" that hadn't been there before.

"It's an interesting thing, walking back on the set and watching people entering back into the fourth season of something," he said. "I entered halfway through the second when it was still in a little bit of a capricious zone because it still could have fallen away at that point. There are no certainties in this business. But I feel like there is a degree of certainty with people coming back for a fourth season, and it's nice to see the sort of confidence radiating from people."

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Daniel Gillies Teases Elijah's Return

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Daniel Gillies Says 'He Has Not Entirely Left The Vampire Diaries'

While at NBCUniversal Summer Press Day 2012 yesterday, The Vampire Diaries actor Daniel Gillies hinted that he’s not completely done with The Vampire Diaries even though his character Elijah Mikaelson had left town at the end of “All My Children” and he is also starring in the new NBC medical drama Saving Hope debuting on June 7.

“I have not entirely left The Vampire Diaries,” says Gillies. “Fortunately we film at different times during the year. I’m deeply indebted to what The Vampire Diaries has given me, but this show (Saving Hope) takes precedence. I love TVD executive producers Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson. I’d do anything for them in a instance. I can’t speak about anything further on the show, or I probably will be fired.”

Daniel Gillies Talks Elijah - Taking Elena Hostage Was The Ultimate Disgrace

When The Vampire Diaries' Elijah was introduced in Season 2, he wasn't supposed to stick around long. More than a year after his arrival the character remains one of the most popular in the show's history.

"In the beginning I was a very old vampire who was going to live like two episodes," Daniel Gillies explains to TVGuide.com. "They didn't know I was going to be a brother, I just was a henchman." But Elijah has transformed from being terrifyingly powerful in his knowledge and skills, to a still powerful vampire, but one with a distinct moral compass and compassion for Elena who Gillies calls a warrior.  

Fans can't get enough of the Original, despite the immense threat he poses to the Salvatore Brothers, among others. Gillies has his own theories as to his character's popularity. "When Elijah shows his face you know things are going to happen," he says. "When he turns up he's exposition and movement and the story is taking flight — or maybe fans just like his multiple haircuts."

While Elijah prides himself on not being driven by impulsive rage like his brother Klaus, Gillies says that his actions towards Elena in last week's episode were so terrifying that it's the reason he fled town at the end. 

"Elena came quite close to peril and closer to peril than he ever thought she would and there's a disgrace in that," Gillies says. "He can be vicious and can be strategic, but he's never reckless and this was one of the few times on the show we've seen him be absolutely reckless in order to get what he needed. Sure, it was his life and the life of his brothers and sister, but placing Elena in the position of being a hostage was probably something he would change if he could go back or at least make certain she wasn't in true danger."

Despite Elijah's upcoming absence (which we hope and assume will be temporary), Gillies has quite a few ideas as to who he'd like to work with in the future.

"I really enjoy my scenes with Ian Somerhalder. There's something very funny about those two in a scene together — they're sort of an odd couple," Gillies says. "Elijah is the sadistic, quiet, calm zinger- type comedy, whereas Damon is this snarky, sometimes bitchy and tempestuous vampire. Of course, if I could team up with anybody, I just feel like if Klaus and Elijah could ever solve their differences the world would be theirs."


See the video below for telephone interview with Daniel:

Daniel Gillies Talks Elijah's Attraction To Elena And An Originals Spin-Off

During last week's "Vampire Diaries," Mystic Fall's mother of the year Esther devised a clever scheme to kill her devilish son Klaus: She bound all of the Original siblings together with a spell, so that if one of them were to die, they would all die. But if there's one Original sibling that's proven that death is never permanent, it's Elijah.

As actor Daniel Gillies reminds HuffPost TV, he's already died -- and been resurrected -- four times.

In Thursday night's all-new episode, "All in the Family," Elijah will ultimately give Damon and Stefan a dangerous ultimatum where the price is Elena's life. If they want to save Elena, then they have to help Elijah stop his mother from going through with her plan. "Elijah can be a decent master of ceremonies when things need to happen," Gillies said. "He's a bit of a DJ at the forthcoming party."

When it comes to Elijah, we never really know what side he's on, but he does seem to have a blossoming friendship with Elena. Could his fascination with Elena stem from her being one of the Petrova doppelgangers?

"I hate the word doppelganger," explained Gillies. "Don't you find it to be the most unattractive word that you've ever heard? It almost sounds like porn position or something. I don't know what it is about it, but it's the most hideous name that they could have chosen for the show. It's just repulsive. That doesn't mean Elena is at all repulsive! She's gorgeous."

All digressions with the word "doppelganger" aside, Gillies believes that Elijah's immediate attraction to Elena may have stemmed from Elena's likeness to Tatia, the Original Petrova, but it certainly doesn't end there.

"I think that his feelings for Elena are unique to the situation that has arisen," said Gillies. "He's run into this person who demonstrates a kind of triumphant spirit. In the beginning when we met Elijah, she was just an instrument to his immediate desires and nothing more, but I think he prides his courage over all other qualities and the valor of being true to oneself, so the more that he got to know her, the more he adored those qualities in her. She's more noble than anybody."

Wait, does this mean that Elena now has another incredibly good looking guy in love with her? Watch out Delena and Stelena fans, it looks like Gillies is throwing down a few fighting words. (Team Elijana, anyone?)

"He feels something for her more purely than Damon or Stefan ever could because I think their attraction to her was more immediately physical," said Gillies. "Elijah has a deeply spiritual attraction to Elena. I think that they mutually do."

That's not to say, however, that Elena didn't betray his trust when she gave her blood to the Original Witch to complete her binding spell. "There's going to be some hell to pay," said Gillies, and judging from next week's promo, it looks like Barbie Klaus Rebekah is ready to rip Elena's head off.

But for those of you hoping that Esther's spell would somehow backfire, Gillies has some unfortunate news for you: "She's a rather effective witch, so I'm going to guess that she was successful in her endeavor."

She may have been successful casting the spell, but that doesn't mean it will get carried out accordingly. Now that the Original siblings are all bound together, they might just have to learn to play nice.

"There's a considerable degree of tension and distrust between the Original family," said Gillies. "It's a period of great trepidation for everyone involved. If the last trilogy of episodes could have a name it would be called 'The Original Minefield.' If you place your foot in the wrong spot, you're doomed. Proceed with caution is all I'll say."

However, if they plan to take out mommy dearest Esther, they'll have to somehow work together. "It doesn't really make sense for them to be completely in harmony with one another, but that doesn't mean that they can't work toward a common goal," teased the actor.

In fact, Gillies is well aware of the fans’ pleas for an Originals spin-off and said that he already has an entire -- and much more adult -- premise mapped out in his head.

"Lots of people have been talking about a potential spin-off, which we'd all love to do. Claire Holt, Joseph Morgan and I have talked about it. This family is so uniquely creepy, and the writers are slowly starting to humanize them and make them into truly compelling characters. I've always said that it would be neat to watch an R-rated version of this family, kind of like 'The Sopranos.' I see them as gangsters living in some sort of corporate vampire world, living in New York. There would be swearing and violence and all sorts of mischief. Forget 'True Blood,' this would be the best show ever."