The Vampire Diaries: A Favorite Marvel Star Almost Replaced Paul Wesley in the Show as Actor Was Considered Too Old for Stefan

The Vampire Diaries was a revolution in the history of TV series. The supernatural teen drama series amassed a huge viewership in its first season. The show single-handedly got millions of people invested in the vampire subgenre of supernatural media. It might have gone off-air in 2017 but still lives in people’s minds rent-free.

While there is no denying that the engaging plot was what kept the show going, the performances of the lead actors like Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, and Nina Dobrev also played a huge role in the show’s success. However, some might find it surprising that Wesley was almost replaced by a Marvel star as revealed by the show’s co-creator Julie Plec.

The Vampire Diaries‘ Stefan Salvatore Was Almost Portrayed by This Marvel Actor

The Vampire Diaries primarily follows the love triangle between Damon Salvatore, Stefan Salvatore, and Elena Gilbert. Elena, a high school student, falls in love with the 162-year-old vampire Stefan. This leads her to the world of vampires, werewolves, and witches. Things get even more complicated when Stefan’s brother Damon also develops feelings for Elena.

It was the most-viewed show on The CW since the network was first started in 2009. This was until it was replaced by the DC show Arrow. Not to mention that the show also won numerous accolades including People’s Choice Awards and Teen’s Choice Awards.

That said, now that it is the fifteenth anniversary of the show, co-creator Julie Plec sat down with The Hollywood Reporter for a tell-all interview. During this interview, she revealed that she and co-creator Kevin Williamson were not very sure about casting Paul Wesley as Stefan Salvatore because he was “too old”. She said:

I know we were chasing, in one way or another, all the possibilities with the covenants, you know, Steven Strait, Sebastian Stan, Taylor Kitsch, but it really turned out to be — I don’t think we could have done a better job.

Sebastian Stan missed the chance to portray a vampire but there were better things for him in store. He was cast as Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s longtime friend, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He still stars as Bucky in the superhero franchise.

What Convinced The Vampire Diaries Creators That Paul Wesley Was the Right Choice?

According to Plec, Somerhalder was their first choice for the role of Damon, but he “tanked” his audition. This put them into a dilemma because they could not decide who could they possibly get to play Damon. The network suggested that Paul Wesley could be Damon, but the creators knew it was a bad idea.

They cast Somerhalder as Damon and Wesley as Stefan anyway. Their decision to have Wesley play Stefan despite his age turned out to be right and they realized it during the filming of the pilot episode.

So Kevin and I were like the last two people to be on board the Paul Wesley train, and it wasn’t really until his first day shooting when he was shooting in the cemetery with Nina Dobrev in a scene where they run into each other for the first time in the cemetery where we were like, “Oh my God, we were so wrong. How embarrassing, because he’s perfect.”

In the end, everyone won. The creators did a great job despite their initial uncertainty about their casting choices and the actors gave their everything to bring forth what has turned out to be a timeless series.

The Vampire Diaries is available for streaming on Max and Peacock.