‘The Originals’ spoilers: Check out the extended pilot for Joseph Morgan series

When “The Originals” aired its backdoor pilot back on April 25, it had a difficult challenge: Having to be connected to “The Vampire Diaries,” and still do enough to feel like something that could become its own show. That caused the episode as a whole to be a little Jekyll-and-Hyde, going between two separate universes to make sure that they both had their due. It also meant that some pretty solid footage had to be cut out in order to actually (and to quote “Project Runway”) make it work.

Luckily, we now have something that can give you an even greater impression of what this new show is really all about: The director’s cut of the pilot. You can watch it now on the series’ official site (thanks to SpoilerTV for the find), at least so long as you are in the United States. There’s about ten minutes of bonus footage in here, and while none of it is going to change the course of the show and make Hayley not pregnant with Klaus’ child (sorry for those of you hoping for that), it does give some extra insight.

We’ve already heard from executive producer Julie Plec that she’s going to be facing some interesting problems of her own for “The Originals” premiere on October 15. She has to create an hour of TV that does not just re-hash everything from the backdoor pilot, but give enough exposition into who these people are so that new viewers can become intrigued by what they see. Also, she has to keep old viewers from being bored. Hard to do, no? We don’t expect the premiere to be the greatest hour of TV ever created, but we like the characters and the premise, and it will probably get stronger as the show goes along.

We do also know already that some of the same events from the pilot will be touched on in the premiere, albeit from a slightly different perspective.

Photo: The CW