Sebastian Stan isn’t sorry he missed a part on The Vampire Diaries — here’s why
Sebastian Stan says he doesn’t regret losing a role on The Vampire Diaries — and he’s now revealed which one.
Here’s one for vampire tele fans and anyone who likes those career 'what ifs'. Sebastian Stan—these days more famous for Marvel heroics and outlandish fur coats than angsty teenage brooding—has been chatting about the time he nearly ended up on The Vampire Diaries. That’s right: Sebastian Stan as Stefan Salvatore. History would have looked rather different, and so would your Tumblr dashboards circa 2010.
The CW’s The Vampire Diaries ran for eight seasons, starting in 2009 and finishing up 2017.
The Role That Wasn't
This little nugget comes straight from Stan’s recent appearance on the ‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast. As it turns out, back in the late noughties, he was fresh off a stint on Kings (remember that one? No, me neither—didn’t last), when the team behind The Vampire Diaries apparently offered him the role of Stefan. That’s Paul Wesley’s brooding little brother character, the linchpin in the show's supernatural love triangle. Stan, though, was less than sold on the idea of signing another big TV contract right after his previous series fizzled.
He also had a bit of genre fatigue. Having starred in The Covenant in 2006—a film absolutely drowning in moody supernatural nonsense—Stan was wary of getting locked into that kind of work. So he turned down Mystic Falls and supernatural drama, handing the vampire baton to Paul Wesley, who carried the role for the show's full run.
No Regrets, Apparently
Here’s why this is all coming up now: Stan reckons it was for the best. He told host Josh Horowitz he genuinely wasn’t ready for the glare of CW megafame back then, and, with the benefit of hindsight, even feels lucky it worked out how it did. In his own words on the podcast:
'They offered me Paul Wesley’s role. And I had just come off Kings, and I sort of felt really burnt out from that not working out and just sort of the idea of thinking, "Oh, I’m just going to sign up again for something that probably is not going to get to the second season."'
Stan added that he was dealing with a fair bit, mentally and emotionally, during those years—reckons he ‘lost focus’ for a while. But he looks back now and calls himself a late bloomer, saying timing was everything. In short, yes, he dodged a bullet on the awkward vampire haircuts, but also feels he wouldn’t change a thing about how it all shook out.