Again, I’m putting everything below a read more for spoiler reasons.
TVGuide
Holy smokes! Every main character on The Originals is down for the count heading into the next season — at least the ones with the last name Mikaelson. It is the first time in the history of the show that all of the original vampires have been incapacitated at the same time, which creates a completely new terrain for the fourth season.
The only hope for the original vampire family now is Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin). At the end of Friday’s season finale, she left New Orleans with her baby daughter Hope and four Mikaelson caskets in the back of her truck on the hunt for the cures she needs to bring her family out of the bewitched slumber that is only thing keeping them alive. Executive producer Michael Narducci told TVGuide.com what’s to come for The Originals if the Mikaelsons are no longer in charge.
What is the status of the Mikaelsons going into Season 4?
Michael Narducci: At the end of our season Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) and Hayley are the only ones left. Marcel is standing somewhat triumphant, although he’s lost people that he loves, including his former family. Hayley, with her daughter, is the guardian of these sleeping vampires and on the run. Season 4 is just packed with story potential…What you can definitely assume is that after a time cut, these sleeping giants are going awaken and they are not going to be happy. There’s going to be a reunion of all these characters. As to what happens there, I’m going to leave it to the fans to think about and debate amongst themselves. We’ve got some great stuff planned.
Hayley is trying to cure Elijah, Kol, Freya and Rebekah — but who is going to rescue Klaus?
Narducci: I don’t know you should assume that the Mikaelsons are the ones that get Klaus out. Maybe there’s some other person that’s going to get Klaus out. Maybe Klaus will get himself out. Maybe someone is going to decide that there’s a big problem in the world and Klaus Mikaelson is the only person that can help us deal with it.
We just found out The Originals won’t be back until at least next year. How will the push affect your plans for Season 4?
Narducci: It has absolutely zero effect on the story that we’re telling. I think it will be a little bit of a tortuous hiatus for the die-hard fans of the show because we do leave on a bit of a cliffhanger. We are going to have a little bit of a time jump in between when the story ends at the end of the finale and when we pick up in Season 4. That experience in the time jump will be similar to what the audience is feeling. To me, in a way, it actually makes sense.
Entertainment Weekly
In terms of Hayley, you’ve been building throughout the season that she’s a part of this family, but I’m interested in the decision to put so much responsibility on the shoulders of a person who’s not necessarily a Mikaelson.
My feeling is, the story that we told in season 3 was really Hayley becoming definitively one of the Mikaelsons. Hope is absolutely a Mikaelson, and Hope’s mother is a Mikaelson, not maybe in name. She’s not an Original vampire. But she is a part of this family. By the definition of what a family is, Hayley is a part of this family. I think that there’s also a beautiful moment between Klaus and Hayley in the finale — the look that these two give each other of desperation and fear and knowing that they’re hopelessly outmatched, and yet it’s a mother and a father looking at each other and saying, “I’m going to go do this thing, I need you to protect our child, and I know that there’s no one on this planet who will do a better job of protecting this child.” It gives me goosebumps. To go from where we were last season, where they really despised each other and Hayley wanted nothing to do with this family and Klaus was paranoid that she was going to take Hope away and raise Hope to hate him, now we see a completely different dynamic, and that is a story arc that I’m extremely proud of.