'The Originals' Season 4 news & update: Season 4 to feature a five-year time jump?; 'Sleepy Hollow' actor joins cast

By Shane Olga Ocampo / Jul 28, 2016 10:50 AM EDT
(Photo : Twitter/ TV Line @TVLine) A split photo of Neil Jackson and Joseph Morgan.

"The Originals" Season 4 will feature a five-year time jump when it premieres midseason on the CW. Meanwhile, the spinoff has added "Sleepy Hollow" actor Neil Jackson to play a recurring character in the new bunch of episodes.

Executive producer/creator Michael Narducci previewed the timeline of "The Originals" Season 4 at Comic Con last week, revealing that the show will pick up five years after the events in Season 3's finale, TV Line reported.

Subsequently, viewers will see that Hope is no longer a toddler when the show resumes. Narducci also previewed that the Mikaelson progeny will play a bigger role on "The Originals" Season 4.

"She was two years old when we left her ... and she's now a little person," Narducci told the crowd.

 "She's got dialogue and hopes and dreams, and she misses her dad and understands her family has suffered a great loss. ... Hayley's a great mom."

"The Originals" Season 4 plotted a mission for Hayley to save everyone - an arc which will require her to find seven werewolf packs. Narducci teased that the upcoming storyline for Hope's mom will be "very difficult."

In other "The Originals" Season 4 news, the spinoff has added "Sleepy Hollow" actor Neil Jackson to join the new season, TV Line has learned. According to the casting report, Jackson is set to portray a recurring character named Alistair who will interact with Klaus. Details are scarce about Jackson's character, but the report confirmed that he is a vampire.

Jackson joins previously cast Kristen Gutoskie and Christina Moses. Gutoskie and Moses recently appeared on Julie Plec's short-lived series, "Containment."

"The Originals" stars Phoebe Tonkin, Charles Micahel Davis and Joseph Morgan. Season 4 will premiere sometime in 2017 on the CW.