Did The Originals Just Cast Elijah's New Love Interest?

Fans are still anxiously awaiting a premiere date for the fifth and final season of The Originals (seriously CW, we're dying over here), but at least a steady stream of casting news has kept us happy in the meantime.

According to TV Line, Jaime Murray has joined the cast for Season 5 as Antoinette, an "old-school" vampire who meets Elijah (Daniel Gillies) shortly after he loses his memories. Her flirtatious, free-spirited nature masks dark secrets about her painful past.

Antoinette will be introduced in the third episode of The Originals final season, but there are no details on what the nature of her relationship with Elijah is as of yet.

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Our best guess is that she may be the season's new villain -- or at least in league with him/her. New characters on The Originals almost always turn out to have ulterior motives, after all. We're just supposed to believe this woman happened to find Elijah immediately after he lost his memories and his family, when he was at his most vulnerable and manipulatable? Yeah right. Side note: Klaus' (Joseph Morgan) paranoia might finally be rubbing off on us.

The other option is that Antoinette is a new love interest for Elijah, seeing as his tumultuous relationship with Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) came to an abrupt end last year. Could Elijah have found a new soulmate during his years without his memory?

Murray previously guest starred on the sixth season of Once Upon a Time as the nefarious Black Fairy, and before that she starred as Stahma Tarra, an alien of the Castithan race on Defiance. It seems as though sci-fi and fantasy are Murray's bread and butter these days.

The Originals Season 5 is slated to premiere in 2018.