The late 2000’s were definitely dominated by vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures in the forms of Twilight and The Vampire Diaries. With the former taking over in both books and films, The Vampire Diaries found much success on The CW, running for eight seasons. Star Ian Somerhalder, who just so happens to be married to Twilight star Nikki Reed, is reflecting on how the major franchise impacted the drama series.
The Vampire Diaries made its debut on The CW just a year after Twilight initially hit theaters, so vampires were all the rage at the time. Ian Somerhalder, who portrayed bad boy vampire Damon Salvatore on TVD, spoke to E! News about Twilight’s success and how it kickstarted The Vampire Diaries:
You have to remember, Twilight hit in 2008—I only know that because I live with Nikki—and so we rode on the coattails of that theatrical success. We were the TV version of that.
It’s not surprising that Ian Somerhalder would think this because it’s very likely true. Twilight was THE franchise of the late 2000s/early 2010s. And while at the time, Supernatural was staying strong on The CW, TVD’s success was partly due to the Twilight craze. Having a vampire series come out at the time of a successful vampire movie franchise, the network was doing something right.
While Twilight possibly played a part in TVD’s success, the series became a staple on The CW, churning out not one but two successful spin-offs with The Originals and Legacies. Although Legacies was cancelled by the network this year as part of the “Red Wedding” of cancellations, creator Julie Plec has made sure to mention that this is not the end of the franchise as there are still many more stories to be told.
Meanwhile, the success of Twilight was not always a good thing, at least for Kristen Stewart. The actress, who portrayed Bella Swan in the book-to-movie adaptations, recently opened up about her first paparazzi experience at the peak of her Twilight fame. However, Stewart has mentioned she looks back at the movies and reminisces about how cool they were, though Ashley Greene brought up the drama that happened on the set of the Twilight films earlier this year. So not everything was sparkly behind-the-scenes, but at least the franchise is still successful to this day.
If it wasn’t for the successes of Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder, who both played vampires in their respective projects, likely would have never found each other. The two actors began dating in 2014 and have been married since 2015. They are still going strong to this day, and last year, Reed even admitted to doing at-home haircuts for herself and her hubby. So it turns out vampires do have souls.
The Twilight franchise is available to stream on Amazon Prime with a subscription, while The Vampire Diaries is available to stream on Netflix with a subscription up until September 3.
