The arrival of new villain Markos in "The Vampire Diaries" Season 5 has been previously reported and the character is set to make an appearance in the upcoming Episode 17. The latest casting reports reveal that actor Raffi Barsoumian landed the role as the big baddie that the TVD gang will deal with before Season 5 ends.

According to Deadline Hollywood, Raffi Barsoumian will be portraying a major recurring role in CW's hit TV series "The Vampire Diaries." The report confirming the actor's addition to the TVD characters reads: "He will play Markos, an imposing and charismatic presence with supernatural origins. Barsoumian, repped by Gartner/Green and attorney Mitch Smelkinson, spent the last three seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival before moving to LA last month."

The Wet Paint report speculates Markos' arrival at Mystic Falls will pick up the storyline on the mysterious Travellers faction where he is the leader. In the 100th episode of "The Vampire Diaires" Season 5, Travellers took interest in Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Elena's (Nina Dobrev) blood and it looks like what they plan to do with it may be revealed when Markos arrives.

At the moment, Katherine Pierce (Nina Dobrev) is the villain in "The Vampire Diaries" Season 5 after the Petrova doppelganger took over Elena's body to escape death with the help of her Traveller daughter Nadia (Olga Fonda). Actress Nina Dobrev talked about what happens with Katherine hijacking Elena's body in an interview.

"Elena is kind of gone, Katherine took over her body, so she's MIA and nobody knows, it's kind of like going missing, like, getting kidnapped and the kidnapper leaving a note and saying that you're on vacation for indefinitely and, welp, nobody is going to look for you because they don't know you're gone. It's kind of a scary thing for her and it'll be interesting to see how long Katherine can get away with it," Ms Dobrev shared to MTV News during the DIRECTV Celebrity Beach Bowl.

Nina Dobrev perfectly portrays the evil Katherine Pierce but the 25-year-old actress revealed in the interview that one of her co-stars can do justice in portraying the TVD character. "I think Candice [Accola, who regularly plays Caroline Forbes] would do a really good job. Katherine Caroline. That would be cool," Nina Dobrev stated.

"The Vampire Diaries" Season 5 returns with Episode 14 titled "No Exit" on Thursday night, February 27, at 8 pm ET on the CW Network.

More Articles to Read:

Michael Trevino: 'Vampire Diaries' Actor Wants to Pull a Prank on Director Paul Wesley, Admits He Initially Did Not Like Co-star Zach Roerig - [READ]

'Vampire Diaries' Executive Producer Julie Plec Reacts to Fans Campaigning to Bring Back Kol, Actor Nathaniel Buzolic Reveals He Would Love to Return - [READ]

Steven R McQueen: 'Vampire Diaries' Actor Featured in the Latest Abercrombie & Fitch Campaign Along with Other Young Rising Stars [WATCH VIDEO] - [READ]

RELATED STORIES