It’s been 15 years since fans were first introduced to The Vampire Diaries, Mystic Falls and all the supernatural beings living there. The series has held up as one of the best supernatural teen dramas, and Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev are still beloved for playing Stefan, Damon and Elena, respectively. However, before all that, Somerhalder’s Damon Salvatore nearly went to someone else, and that someone was the man who wound up playing Stefan, Paul Wesley.
Wesley's Stefan and Somerhalder's Damon are arguably two of the best reasons to watch TVD. However, it took a while to find the perfect pair to play the vampire brothers. Creator Julie Plec recently made that very clear as she told The Hollywood Reporter what the casting process was like.
The story begins with her and her team being interested in Somerhalder, because they had liked him in Young Americans. However, she said he "tanked" his audition, so they had to look at other options. That's when the idea of Wesley playing Damon came up, however, that was quickly shot down as she explained:
We had a moment where we were like, well, if [Ian Somerhalder’s] not our Damon, then who is? And then Paul Wesley came in amidst a sea of 10 other possible Stefans. And Kevin and I — we’ve also said, so I don’t feel like I’m talking shit — just thought he [Paul] was too old, and so we said, ‘No, we don’t want him. He’s too old.’ And then the network said, ‘Well, make him Damon instead of Ian.’ And we were like, ‘Oh, no, we can’t do that. A terrible idea.’
Wesley is the perfect Stefan. However, I can understand why the network floated the idea of him playing Damon, especially since he was such a standout and Somerhalder's audition didn't go as well as planned. With that said though, the reasoning for not wanting him as Damon also makes sense since he doesn’t fit the look and personality they had in mind for older Salvatore brother.
Plec went on to say that they didn't know if they'd made the right choice at first when they cast Wesley as Stefan and Somerhalder as Damon. However, they quickly realized that those worries weren't necessary, as she explained:
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.’ 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.
It is interesting to know that Plec and Williamson weren’t really on board with Paul Wesley as Stefan until filming started. It also makes me wonder how he would have done as Damon, but we'll never know, and that might be a good thing.
Ultimately, Wesley beat out other actors for Stefan for a reason, and Ian Somerhalder was given a second chance as Damon, and it worked out perfectly.
However, even if things worked out perfectly, Wesley didn’t always think he’d be able to stick around. Last year, he opened up about how he thought he’d get fired during the first few years of TVD. Since the show didn’t necessarily revolve around just one main character, the young cast knew that they were replaceable. The Stefan actor admitted that while his co-stars, most of whom were in their 20s, were out partying and coming in to work late and hungover, he was serious and stayed home to study his lines to ensure he didn't lose the gig.
Well, that mindset worked, as he led the TVD cast until it ended. And to this day, he's asked about the potential to return as Stefan.
Even if it took a while, all roads led back to Paul Wesley and Stefan, and it’s a darn good thing they did. These days, Wesley may be part of the cast of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and other projects, but he will always be remembered and loved for The Vampire Diaries, which can be streamed with a Max subscription or Peacock subscription.
