CWDaddy's home!
The Originals fans were shocked at the end of the season one finale when Mikael (Sebastian Roché), father of the Original vampires, returned to the land of the living, vowing to kill all his children once and for all. But his return came with strings attached.
Specifically, strings attached to young witch Davina (Danielle Campbell), who has complete control over the violent and vengeful vampire vampire-hunter. That's good news for Klaus (Joseph Morgan), Elijah (Daniel Gillies), and every other Original vampire out there, since Mikael is still seriously out for their blood.
We put on our brave face and confronted the scary Papa Original himself to talk all things season two, including whether or not we'll see a giant Original family reunion. After all, Mama Original Esther also returned from the dead in a new body, taking one of her sons (Is it Kol or Finn?) with her.
Roché didn't always know that he'd be back for good on The Originals, but he did know he wasn't finished with playing the character. "When you have Originals in the title and you're Papa Original, I knew that eventually I was going to pop my head in," Roché said with a laugh. "The first five episodes are going to be very intense and it's going to be quite an epic season, there's no question about it. We're in store for some amazing confrontations between Mikael and his sons."
And Klaus and Elijah better watch out, because those confrontations aren't going to be filled with fatherly hugs and sunshine and rainbows. Mikael's time on The Other Side didn't diminish his anger at Klaus for killing Esther.
"Mikael has this thousand-year-old rage and desire for revenge for his son," Roché said. "There are going to be some different aspects this time around but that desire for revenge will be there still. You'll see different layers to the character through flashbacks, and we'll see the history of some of the other characters of our family as well as others like Hayley [Phoebe Tonkin] and Cami [Leah Pipes] and Davina."
And speaking of Davina, the little witch really came into her own when she exerted her power over Mikael to stop him from killing Klaus and his newborn daughter Hope in the finale. Yeah, he was really going to kill a baby! Talk about major daddy issues. Should Davina watch her back now that Mikael knows she's got full control over him? Not exactly, according to Roché.
"Actually, there are moments where you'll see that Mikael and Davina have this almost teacher/pupil relationship, even though Mikael is rough around the edges in those terms, but he doesn't mind her for being brave enough to stand up to him," he said. "Because nobody stands up to Mikael so anyone who does gets more credit in his eyes. That relationship is going to be an interesting one to watch."
Another relationship Roché can't wait for the fans to see play out onscreen is that of married couple Mikael and Esther, who have been apart for over 1,000 years. But unfortunately we're going to have to wait a while to see that reunion.
"He doesn't know Esther returned too," Roché said. "I can't wait until they meet and find out they've both returned. It will be quite interesting when Mikael finds out that he's surrounded by his entire family again. The emotional ramifications of that encounter will be fascinating. We don't know if she's going to come back as who he knew 1,000 years ago, but she's still the embodiment of his wife. She was someone that he loved deeply and she was torn away from him. Then he took the blame for her death, so of course it's going to be very emotional."
And now that mostly every Mikaelson family member is back in New Orleans, Roché wants to see them all sit down for one big family dinner. "I don't know if this will happen, but I'd really love to see the whole Original family meet, together, in a mea culpa session in modern times," he added. "And I would be excited not to see me die! For a whole season! I tend to die in everything I do so I'd like to survive this time."
Roché is attempting to cheat death on the big screen as well, in the blockbuster film A Walk Among the Tombstones, which opens in theaters today. Fans of his work on Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals know that Roche can play a pretty dark character, but this role and movie is unlike anything we've seen him do before.
"It's a very New York, psychological, noir film about these two psychopath serial killers who target drug dealers' loved ones in order to kidnap and get money as quickly as possible since they always have money laying around and they wouldn't go to the cops for help," Roché explained. "I play one of these drug dealers, a Russian gangster named Yuri Landau, and my daughter has been kidnapped."
Even though Yuri is a criminal, Roche said he loves how the emotional situation he's in paints him as a good guy. "It's quite an interesting role because I play the part of a bad guy but in reality, this guy is in a terribly human situation," he said. "Subsequently, he's regarded as a good guy, even though he's this badass drug dealer. The duality of the character is what attracted me to the role."
Yuri enlists the help of Matt Scudder (played by Liam Neeson), an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic, to find and save his daughter from an unthinkable fate. Roché said he loved getting to work alongside Neeson.
"Liam is a genuine movie star," he said. "The one thing about Liam Neeson is that he truly is a prince of a man. He's very humble, down to earth, approachable and a really lovely man. He deserves to be where he is because he's not only brilliantly talented but he is just a kind, respectful person."
A Walk Among the Tombstones hits theaters today and The Originals season two premieres Oct. 6 at 8 p.m. on The CW.