TV Shows Like The Originals
If you like The Originals, here are 12 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
The CW · Sci-Fi & Fantasy · The Originals is ended
The Originals works because it takes the vampire mythology seriously as a vehicle for family drama. The Mikaelsons are not particularly likable people. They are manipulative, violent, and consumed by old grievances, and that is exactly the point. The show understands that a family bound together by centuries of shared trauma and mutual betrayal is more interesting than any external villain, and it uses New Orleans as a living, breathing backdrop that has its own political layers and supernatural factions. The city feels like a character, and the fight to control it gives every alliance and double-cross a sense of real stakes.
The best shows like The Originals
1. True Blood
True Blood is set in Louisiana, just like the New Orleans of The Originals, and it has the same appetite for vampire politics played out in a society with deep cultural roots. The show treats its supernatural creatures as full social actors with agendas, prejudices, and histories, which gives it the same layered quality that makes the Mikaelson world so absorbing. If you liked the way The Originals used its setting and its power structures, True Blood scratches a very similar itch.
Stream on Hulu, HBO Max, HBO Max Amazon Channel
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2. The Strain
The Strain takes vampirism in a harder, more visceral direction, framing it as a spreading plague with an ancient intelligence behind it. It shares The Originals' interest in ancient, powerful vampire figures whose reach extends across human history, and its serialized structure keeps the sense of escalating threat consistent. Fans who responded to the mythology-heavy elements of The Originals will find a lot to dig into here.
Stream on Hulu, AMC Plus Apple TV Channel , AMC+ Amazon Channel, AMC+
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3. Angel
Angel is the closest thing on this list to a direct spiritual sibling of The Originals. It centers on a centuries-old vampire with enormous power and a complicated moral history trying to operate in a city that does not belong to him, which maps neatly onto the Mikaelson dynamic. The noir atmosphere, the ensemble of morally grey characters, and the tension between redemption and relapse all echo what The Originals does at its best.
Stream on Hulu
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4. Legacies
Legacies is set in the same universe as The Originals and features Hope Mikaelson, Klaus's daughter, as its central character, so the connective tissue is direct and obvious. The tone is lighter and more focused on the coming-of-age experience at the Salvatore School, but the show still draws on the mythology and the character history that The Originals built. For fans who are not ready to leave that world behind, it is the most natural next step.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
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5. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina shares The Originals' interest in a protagonist caught between family loyalty and her own moral instincts, with a dark fantasy setting that treats its mythology as something genuinely threatening. The show has a strong sense of place and atmosphere, and its central conflict, a young woman navigating a powerful and controlling family legacy, rhymes with the Mikaelson dynamic in interesting ways. It is a different kind of supernatural drama, but fans of The Originals' darker register will find it familiar in the right ways.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
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More on shows like The Originals
Fans of The Originals tend to want a few specific things in a follow-up show: supernatural creatures treated as something more than monsters, morally complicated protagonists who are capable of genuine cruelty, and a setting with atmosphere and texture. They also tend to respond well to serialized plots built around power struggles, legacy, and loyalty. A show that takes its mythology seriously and does not rush to make its central figures safe or sympathetic will land well with this audience.
The recommendations here cover a range of tones, but each one offers at least a few of those qualities. True Blood and The Strain both use vampirism as a lens for examining human society, though the former is more politically playful and the latter is more grimly apocalyptic. Angel is the closest in spirit to the redemption arc storytelling The Originals occasionally flirts with, while Legacies is the direct continuation of that universe, following the next generation at the Salvatore School. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina operates on a similar register of dark fantasy with a family legacy at its core, even if it leans younger in its framing.
None of these shows are identical to The Originals, and that is probably fine. What they share is a willingness to treat supernatural fiction as a place to explore real emotional and moral weight, and a refusal to sand down the edges of their central characters into something too comfortable. That combination is what made the Mikaelsons worth following across multiple seasons, and it is the thread that runs through all five of these shows in one form or another.
More shows like The Originals
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like The Originals?
- True Blood is the most popular show similar to The Originals in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like The Originals still on the air?
- Of the 12 shows similar to The Originals listed here, 1 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like The Originals?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.