It’s been a few weeks now since The CW announced that they planned to air the backdoor pilot to The Vampire Diaries spin-off as part of the TVD regular season. Since then, The Originals casting news has been pretty steady.

The latest addition to the cast is Charles Michael Davis (The Game), who will play the role of Klaus’s (Joseph Morgan) former protégé, Marcel. This is a pretty big get for the actor if the pilot is ordered to series, which looks likely, since Marcel had been set up as a significant character within the plot.

Deadline is reporting that he’s sort of an Aladdin-like character who lived on the streets growing up and relied on his charms and wits to get him through. Now that he’s a vampire he’s become somewhat of a supernatural kingpin. Someone who’s “fierce and bold, able to accomplish as much with his charm as he is with his strength.”

When Klaus heads back to New Orleans, his former stomping grounds, he’ll have more than just Marcel to keep him company. Unfortunately, Phoebe Tonkin’s character Hayley from The Vampire Diaries will also be making the move. We can only hope that the residents of The Big Easy will find her just as unlikeable as those in Mystic Falls and deliver her an unfriendly eviction notice.

On the plus side, Daniel Gillies will reprise his role as Elijah and has been cast as a series regular – which makes sense because you can’t have a show titled The Originals with only one Original. No word if Rebekah (Claire Holt) will be crossing state lines, but since her future is still a little fuzzy with the hunt for the cure heating up on The Vampire Diaries, it seems more likely that the network would keep this news under wraps for the time being. Although, they have confirmed without officially confirming that Kol (Nathaniel Buzolic) will not be among the Originals relocating since he has now been staked for the last time on episode 4-12.

And since you can’t have vampires, werewolves, and hybrids without a witch – Daniella Pineda has been cast as Sophie, a witch with some power problems not unlike The Vampire Diaries resident witch, Bonnie (Kat Graham) has recently had. Sophie may have some magic malfunctions but she is a leader in the community and still has a serious voice among her peers.

The pilot of The Originals is being written by Julie Plec, co-creator and executive producer of The Vampire Diaries and will air on The CW on Thursday, April 25th – mark your calendars!