ONTD

3:26 pm - 02/05/2013

Charles Michael Davis is Klaus's protege Marcel in Vampire Diaries spin-off

EXCLUSIVE: Charles Michael Davis (The Game) is set to co-star opposite The Vampire Diaries‘ Joseph Morgan, Daniel Gillies and Phoebe Tonkin in the potential spinoff The Originals, which will be introduced in the April 25 episode of the CW drama. Written by TVD co-creator/executive producer Julie Plec, The Originals centers on the Original family of vampires, as Klaus (Morgan) returns to the supernatural melting pot that is the French Quarter of New Orleans — a town he helped build centuries ago — and is reunited with his diabolical former protégé Marcel (Davis). Wicked, wild and charismatic, Marcel is a former kicked-around street rat who now calls the shots in the supernatural playground of New Orleans. As a modern-day vampire, he’s fierce and bold, able to accomplish as much with his charm as he is with his strength. Elijah (Gillies), intent on helping his self-destructive brother find redemption, must side with Marcel’s enemies in order to keep Klaus in line. Like Morgan and Gillies, Tonkin also is reprising her role from TVD. Davis joins fellow Daniella Pineda, who also has been cast in Originals as a regular. Davis, repped by Peter Strain & Associates and Mary Erickson, is filming a recurring role on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and also recurred on ABC Family’s Switched At Birth.

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wickedwatch 5th-Feb-2013 11:27 pm (UTC)
Very surprised they actually cast a POC actor (although the oppressing villain ofc.)
evett 5th-Feb-2013 11:33 pm (UTC)
It is funny the way people think a vampire who acts like a vampire is an evil villain.
wickedwatch 5th-Feb-2013 11:37 pm (UTC)
He's the antagonist of the story though with all the context that's been given so far about the spin off. Maniacal vampire ruling the supernatural world of New Orleans, witches magic being suppressed, etc.
evett 5th-Feb-2013 11:47 pm (UTC)
In general a vampire who does things that are bad by human standards are always looked at as the villains when they are just being themselves. vampires with ~feelings~ who don't want to feed on humans are always "the good ones" even though they should be the weirdos.
wickedwatch 5th-Feb-2013 11:55 pm (UTC)
That really doesn't have to do with the main concerns of my initial statement though. While I'm pleasantly surprised they cast a POC in a major role for this pilot, it happens to be the role of the oppressor and antagonist combined with the fact that Julie Plec doesn't really have a strong track record of portraying POC characters (hero, antagonist and otherwise.)
evett 6th-Feb-2013 12:02 am (UTC)
Ok but that has nothing to do with my comment either. Again. Just talking about vampires in general.

Though they don't last long the poc on TVD have been "the good guy" characters. (I should say most, I might be forgetting but iirc I really can't think of any that were all out evil)
amber_protocol 6th-Feb-2013 01:36 am (UTC)
While I understand your aversion to Plec's writing (being that it's shitty and racist), I'm always of two minds about casting POC in the villain roles, because there is definitely the potential of being all "Look at this evil non-white person and how evil they are (because they're not white)!!", but there's also the fact that the villain can be extremely charismatic and become a fan favourite.

Just off the top of my head, Sylar basically took Heroes over from the actual heroes, Damon's by the far the most popular on TVD (as much as it pains me to admit, because I think he's a fuckwit), Spike was beloved on Buffy, Loki's extremely popular from the Avengers, it just goes on. So it always seemed unfair to me that a POC couldn't get the same kind of role and become a fan favourite, because I personally can't think of any that have done so (although I haven't watched all the shows/movies ever, so please do tell me if you know of any).

It also strikes me as limiting as well, because actors generally like playing bad guys because it's fun, so if only white actors get to do it, it doesn't seem fair in that case either. Idk, just my rambling thoughts.
wickedwatch 6th-Feb-2013 01:42 am (UTC)
I know that and I tend to really love the villain characters too (season 1!Damon, Kol, Angelus, etc.) I'm just really cautious because of JP's poor track record, so I just don't want to get my hopes up.
amber_protocol 6th-Feb-2013 01:45 am (UTC)
Ah right, so it's just in the case of this show, I thought you meant more generally. But yeah, 1 million percent agree about being weary of her writing a POC as the bad guy, she can't even write them as the good guys ugh.
shunda84 6th-Feb-2013 03:29 am (UTC)
I agree about the bad guys being the most popular. I was almost instantly a Damon fan. And while I miss the season 1 version of him, I get that he has to evolve & change. I just don't like some of the ways they changed him.

I also agree that while people see POC as bad guys to be racist, it would be stupid not to have a POC portrayed that way. I'm black & I don't wanna see all black people as the good guys. There has to be a balance.
severalstories 6th-Feb-2013 12:03 am (UTC)
I remember Sarah Rees Brennan talking about the demons in her Demon's Lexicon series, how she deliberately had "the one demon who's not like the others" as the antagonist rather than the ~brooding hero~.
lanavis 6th-Feb-2013 02:07 am (UTC)
Did you like it?
I read the 1st 2 books, but never finished it. It was decent, but I felt like it was lacking in places and it seemed like she wasn't sure whether or not to make Nick's feelings for his "brother" as "incestuous" or possessive as it was implied.
severalstories 6th-Feb-2013 02:15 am (UTC)
I could pretty much talk for days about how much I love that trilogy, I have to say. Nick's headspace is weird as fuck, so I had trouble with the first book, too, but once you get to the climactic scenes and find out what's really going on everything makes perfect sense. And then Mae's the central character of the second book and Sin's the central character of the third book and they're both amazing.
lanavis 6th-Feb-2013 02:39 am (UTC)
I read the 2nd book, but the 3rd yet.
Is it worth it w/o spoiling?
severalstories 6th-Feb-2013 02:42 am (UTC)
Totally worth it! It took me like a year to get ahold of the third book, and it proved to be one of the few books in recent memory that I could not put down once I started.
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