Scoop type Movie genre Romance

Oh, Tyler. After years of leaving, returning, and leaving again on The Vampire Diaries, Klaus’ first successful hybrid is back in the revenge state of mind, and tonight marks his first venture into New Orleans territory on The Originals. Wanting to kill Klaus is old news in Tyler’s world. He spent half of last season un-siring hybrids in order to rally against the Original. But when that failed, and Klaus decided to take revenge by murdering Tyler’s mother, the one-time jock hit the road. But it turns out, he wasn’t just off blowing steam.

After spending his time in the Appalachian mountains gathering valuable information on Hayley, Tyler is ready to come back and take on both the people who screwed him over last winter. We caught up with Michael Trevino to talk about Tyler’s plan, a physical fight with Klaus, and what this could all mean for Hayley and her unborn child:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start with the promo, with Klaus and Tyler running at each other. Please tell me that Tyler is smarter than a one-on-one throw down with Klaus.

MICHAEL TREVINO: As you saw in the promo, there is a brawl, and there’s a drag-out fight. But Tyler isn’t just going to New Orleans to pick a fight with Klaus. That’s just not a good idea. His first intention is to make things right. He comes to the table with a lot of information about Hayley. Tyler’s been gone for quite some time, and I think that he’s learned a few things about her that not many people are aware of. And so he’s going to use that to his advantage with going through this plan that he has.

How much of his visit is helping Hayley versus hurting Klaus? Or is he helping Hayley?

You gotta remember that Hayley kind of had a little bit to do with Tyler’s mother dying when he was trying to get back at Klaus, when he was trying to get his hybrids all together, so Tyler’s coming in as kind of a villain. I don’t think he’s there to help anybody really. He’s there to get revenge, to make things right.

I saw where Julie Plec talked about Tyler taking Hayley to the bayou to understand more about where she’s from …

Right.

So does that information directly affect Klaus?

Not directly. But Klaus wants to be the best. He wants to be number one. He wants to be the Original Hybrid, but he wants more and I think that Hayley’s got a big part to do with that in his plan. If Hayley was in danger, then that’s going to ruin his plan.

Does her pregnancy throw a wrench in his plans? Affect it at all?

No, that might actually be a big part of Tyler’s plan.

So Caroline is obviously going to come up in conversation …

She does. These guys have been enemies for a very long time, and you’d think that Klaus would kind of want to take a jab at Tyler, bring her up, and maybe that would lead to some aggression and maybe that leads to two guys running at each other full speed.

I saw where you talked about this being the end of that love triangle?

Oh yes, I think most definitely, because of the last scene we saw with Tyler. He’s breaking up with Caroline, and that’s the first time that he’s actually made the choice to break up with her. Every other time, he’s had to leave town. This was the first time where it was his decision, and Klaus had a lot to do with that, but this should take us somewhere on another chapter as far as Tyler’s story.

The Originals already has war between Marcel and Klaus, the vampires and the witches. Is Tyler going to fold himself into that fabric or is he a separate thing Klaus has to go deal with?

I think Tyler’s definitely a separate thing. It’s not like Tyler’s showing up to New Orleans and buying a house. He’s going there, seeking revenge against Klaus. He has an objective. He’s got a lot of information on Hayley, and he has a plan. And he’s going to try and carry it out and obviously it’s going to be very bad for Klaus if Tyler gets his way.

He’s not showing up and getting a Team Marcel T-shirt or anything …

Exactly, no.

I read you talking about this being a sort of return to season 1 Tyler. All I think about with season 1 Tyler is “douche.”

The guy was terrible. There was nothing to him. He was that guy, that football-meathead-douchebag guy. I just mean that Tyler’s there basically picking fights and just being aggressive. Tyler’s not nice right now. He’s very angry. But I think as we’ve been going through this journey with him for five seasons, I think most of the fans would know why. It’s not like they’re going to start to dislike Tyler. I think they’re going to know where he’s coming from.

He has more reasons for being a douche now.

Absolutely. He’s been surrounded by death with his father, his uncle, and his mother. Klaus has really wrecked this kid’s life, and there’s only one way to make that right at this point, and it’s not to stay in Mystic Falls and go to college. It’s to go and mess up Klaus’ life as much as possible.

Season 1 Tyler wasn’t the brightest bulb. Has he learned from his mistakes? How worried should I be about Tyler on this venture?

It’s going to be okay. I have more fun playing him as a villain and not always mixed up in this love triangle with Caroline. And here it’s fun. It’s just the first time you’re going to see him being very aggressive. He does fight with Klaus, and he’s coming with a lot of information. Every other time he’s gone after Klaus with a plan it’s been about this epic battle, and like you said earlier, that’s not very smart. You don’t go pick fights with Klaus. This is more kind of on a psychological level, because he’s setting things in motion. He has so much information on Hayley that’s going to come to light that makes her and that baby even more important than they already are.

We know he could come face-to-face with other Originals, so does this information then indirectly affect Elijah and Rebekah as well?

Absolutely, because no matter all their differences in that Mikaelson family, it’s still family. We know that Elijah and Hayley are close, and so I don’t think he’s going to be fine with it at all. And so yes, Tyler being in town affects everybody.

As long as he doesn’t physically hurt Elijah, I’m okay with it.

[Laughs] No. He won’t.

The Originals airs tonight at 8 p.m. on The CW.