#TheCW: "The Originals" Will End After Season 5

Vampire fans, get ready to bid adieu to The Mikaelsons 🙁

Earlier today (Friday, 21st July), creator and show runner Julie Plec took to Twitter to announce that “The Originals” is ending after its upcoming 5th season. This comes after “The Vampire Diaries” sang its swan song after an 8-year run.

“I’m packing my bags for Comic-Con, realising it’s been a year since we announced the end of ‘The Vampire Diaries’. It feels only fitting to use this anniversary to make a 2nd farewell announcement: This year, we invite you to help us say goodbye to ‘The Originals’, which begins shooting its 5th and final season on Monday,” she wrote.

Plec continued, “It’s both a gift and burden to be able to control the ending of a series. Many shows are not lucky enough to have a hand in deciding when the end has come. Being able to celebrate the completion of ‘The Vampire Diaries’ was a joyful and deeply emotional ride, a luxury gifted by Mark Pedowitz at The CW and Peter Roth at WBTV, who, as TV fans themselves, knows what it means when a fan is able to say a true goodbye. Ending a show is always bittersweet, but for me, it’s a true blessing to be a part of making that choice.”

“I want each actor to play their last scene as their character, and to put their character to bed with grace and care. For each craftsman to take a final walk on the sets they built, the lights they’ve hung. To choose the final song or score the final scene. To turn out the lights at the end of the last day, knowing that they can take a moment to be proud of all that they’ve created, and to say goodbye before they walk out the door for the last time. And I want the fans to be able to go along on that ride with us,” she added.

The 45-year-old then ended her note by urging fans to “celebrate with us, cry with us, visit with us, watch us next spring when we air…and know that in a show about an immortal family who believes in ‘Always and Forever’, it’s never really the end of a story…With love, Julie.”