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In the surreal fantasy world ruled by vampires, demons, and other supernatural creatures,The Vampire Diariesmade a splash big enough to be remembered even ages after being last aired. For one, Damon, Stefan, and Elena’s story appeased fans worldwide to the point where it successfully spawned 171 episodes over 8 seasons without losing its exceptional ratings.
But the surprising part is that this enchanting story almost didn’t materialize for one too many reasons. WhileTwilightalmost killed the series even before it could be made due to the similarity in the storylines, a real tragedy nearly further changed everything for the golden trio played by Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, and Nina Dobrev.
This real-life tragedy changed everything forThe Vampire Diaries
Since there’s a lot of competition in the supernatural fantasy genre, the mere decisionto adaptThe Vampire Diariesbook seriesinto a television show was already met with a pretty conflicting decision-making process. But what further posed a problem after the show developers decided to bring this story to life was this series’ similarity in set-up toTwilight.
TheTVDbooks were written and released years before its rival, Edward Cullen’s lovelorn saga, made its way to the screens in live-action. Thus, this eliminated the excitement barrier to a vast extent as it all felt a bit too familiar to dive it. Due to this very real-life tragedy, the show developers decided to modify the storyline for Damon, Stefan, and Elena.
In an oral history of the TV series recorded byEntertainment Weekly, show developer Kevin Williamson confessed how co-developer Julie Plec warned him about this very element. He said:
Julie read the whole book overnight and she called me up and said, ‘Stop reading right now.’ I said, ‘Why?’ And she said, ‘Because if you turn the page I’m scared you’re going to say no.’
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But Plec also devised a plan to overcome this strategy. She told Williamson, “I’m not sure you’re going to like this, but I think that there’s something in here in the way that Buffy built an entire journey around a town. I think there’s something about this town and all the characters within the town that could make it something special.“
That’s exactly what they did. Sharing what initially went through his mind while working on how to alter this project’s content, Williamson said:
I thought about: What is this really about? It’s about this young girl who is dealing with death. I went, ‘Okay check that box.’ It’s about how this dead man comes along and brings her back to life. I went, ‘Okay, wouldn’t that be lovely? That’s certainly what I need right now.’
Using this very metaphor, he “played against the allegory” before sitting down at the kitchen table with Plec to write a story that they would end up “just cr[ying] over.” Williamson said, “We tried to find that part of it that was really about Elena trying to learn how to live again. And it worked. It really worked. And in a weird way, the whole show was my Stefan.“
Effortlessly enough, even though it required them to place the 3 main leads portrayed byIan Somerhalder(Damon Salvatore),Paul Wesley(Stefan Salvatore), andNina Dobrev(Elena Gilbert) in a different set-up than what the book series held, it all played out perfectly for them in the end.
This is evident from how the series not only became the most-watched series on the network (before being surpassed byArrow) but also earned itself a stunning 86% critical and 72% audience score from review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes. This makes it all the more surprising that the show developers didn’t want to adapt the series into live-action in the first place!
TVDshow creators didn’t want to adapt the book series because ofTwilight
While the problem of the show having a bit too similar set-up to that ofTwilightcame later, what’s baffling is that the show developers actually didn’t want to transform the book series into live-action in the first place. During the same oral history, Plec shared the same, saying:
I was telling them about a pitch that I had about a supernatural boarding school and how much I loved that world, and we were talking about whether there were any vampires in it. I said, ‘I don’t think so because as much as I love vampires, between Twilight and True Blood, I feel like vampires are over.’
But then the CW’s Jen Breslow shared how they were looking for writers forThe Vampire Diaries. To this,Kevin Williamsonconfessed that he had received the book earlier through a development executive but he had passed on the idea saying, “Oh teen vampires, no thank you.” Even when Breslow pitched the piece to them, Williamson’s initial reaction was “a big, ‘Hell no!’“
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He had a fair reasoning behind the same too: “There had been all thisTwilightsuccess and here comes the show that really puts the nail in the coffin of the vampire trend. I just didn’t want to be the end of a trend. Who knew that it had a long way to go before it died out?” This is why heoriginally thought about working onwhat would go on to become one of his best projects to date.
However, beforeTwilightcould even foreshadow this series and eliminate all chances of its happening, co-developer Julie Plec gave in as she had “never actually created my own TV show so I would’ve done anything,” so Williamson hopped on board too. That was that and the rest was history, as Damon, Stefan, and Elena’s iconic story went on to become one of the most fan-favorite supernatural drama series of all time.
The Vampire Diaries can currently be streamed on Netflix.
Mahin Sultan
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2478
Mahin Sultan is a Senior Writer at FandomWire, where she brings a fresh perspective to entertainment news. Having been in the field for over 3 years now, she has already written more than 2,000 articles across a variety of niches, from entertainment to health and fashion. This diverse experience has allowed her to quickly build a solid foundation and a deep understanding of the industry.
