TV The Originals: Meet Hope's love interest and Hayley's 'friend with benefits' By Samantha Highfill Samantha Highfill Samantha is a writer based in Los Angeles. Television is her one true love, and she tweets about it. A lot. EW's editorial guidelines Published on August 17, 2017 11:30AM EDT To celebrate Fall TV and our huge Fall TV Preview issue — hitting stands on Sept. 15 — EW is bringing you 50 scoops in 50 days, a daily dish on some of your favorite shows. Follow the hashtag #50Scoops50Days on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with the latest, and check EW.com/50-Scoops for all the news and surprises. At San Diego Comic-Con, The Originals showrunner Julie Plec revealed that in the show’s upcoming fifth and final season — which features an 8-year time jump — there will be a few new men. Not only will Hayley have a “friend with benefits” named Declan, but Plec also said that Hope will have a Jordan Catalano locker-lean moment with a boy from school. And now? Both of those characters have faces. George Pimentel / Contributor; Hudson Taylor EW can exclusively reveal that Torrance Coombs (Reign) will play Declan, who’s described as “a flirtatious, roguish and charming Irish chef, who is unaware of the supernatural underbelly of New Orleans or that the woman he is involved with is part of an infamous family of vampires.” And then there’s Hope’s potential love interest, Roman. Played by Jedidiah Goodacre (who was Chad Charming in Disney’s Descendants movies), Roman is “a devilish and charming schoolmate of Hope Mikaelson. Roman is a recently turned vampire who becomes curious about Hope’s family after she’s involved in a mysterious incident at school.” (Hey, what’d you expect from a school full of witches?) The Originals returns for its fifth and final season in 2018 on The CW.