'The Originals' season 4 release date, plot updates 2016: Hope unveils her dark side? Klaus to face his worst villain?

Hope will no longer be an innocent baby when "The Originals" returns for its fourth season. In fact, if the latest spoilers for the series are to be believed, it looks like Klaus and Hayley's daughter has a dark side to reveal.

There will be a five-year time jump when The CW's supernatural series returns on air, so fans will see a seven-year-old Hope (Summer Fontana) being all inquisitive about her father Klaus (Joseph Morgan). Aside from a grown-up Hope, Klaus will finally escape the prison Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) created for him.

Nevertheless, the fourth season will also see the arrival of a new and vicious villain, Alistair Duquesne (Neil Jackson), who has been holding a grudge against the original badass hybrid for the longest time—100 years—and it looks like the fourth season's storyline will see Alistair hunting Klaus to exact revenge.

The upcoming installment will also apparently have a mysterious force wreaking havoc amongst the children of New Orleans. This will prompt Klaus and Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) to be protective of Hope. However, according to speculations, this force may well be connected to Alistair. It remains to be seen whether there is truth to this or none.

As the daughter of two hybrids, Hope will be revealing a dark side to her that will surprise her parents. She will not need any prodding, she will apparently come out of her own. It's worth noting that aside from being vampire and werewolf, Hope likewise has witch's blood running through her veins, so these three elements will come into play in the fourth season. According to rumors, Hope will be more inclined to follow Freya (Riley Voelkel) than her parents, so the witch part might prevail.

Be that as it may, it looks like the Original Family only has Hope to rely on. So fans could expect the little girl to learn every power and spell she could get her hands on in an effort to save her family.

"The Originals" season 4 is expected to return on air midseason of 2017 via The CW.