Marvel Star Almost Became Stefan In The Vampire Diaries And Fans Would Have Lost It

Here is some excellent TV casting what-if fuel for your day: The Vampire Diaries almost put an MCU star in a Salvatore brother seat. A new oral history says Sebastian Stan was seriously in the mix for Stefan — and even read for Damon — before Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder ultimately locked the roles down. The behind-the-scenes scramble was messier (and more interesting) than you might expect.

The Sebastian Stan of it all

According to Samantha Highfill's book 'I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries' (as shared via Entertainment Weekly), producers met with Sebastian Stan and talked about him at the studio level for Stefan Salvatore. They could not pull the trigger because he was tied up with NBC's short-lived series 'Kings.' Classic TV scheduling killshot.

'It was Sebastian Stan. He came over to meet, so we got to spend some time chatting with him. We were totally interested in him, and he was discussed at the studio the first time we tested Stefan, but we couldn’t do it because he was tied to another show.'

— casting director Lesli Gelles-Raymond

Stan did not just chase Stefan; he also read for Damon. At one point the team even kicked around a Steven Strait-as-Stefan, Sebastian Stan-as-Damon combo. That is a very different show in my head.

Why Stefan was the problem child

Julie Plec, who co-created the series, says Stefan was uniquely hard to cast because the role is not just brooding and good cheekbones; it is grief, restraint, and centuries of baggage. In other words, smolder alone was not going to cut it, and they needed a real-deal actor who could thread that needle. Casting director Greg Orson backs that up, calling Stefan the toughest nut to crack and saying they kept circling Paul Wesley for Stefan while feeling strongly that Ian Somerhalder was their Damon.

The near-misses

• Stefan Salvatore: Sebastian Stan was discussed at the studio but unavailable due to NBC's 'Kings'; Nathaniel Buzolic also came up; at one point, the team imagined Steven Strait as Stefan in a hypothetical pairing where Stan would play Damon.
• Damon Salvatore: Sebastian Stan read; Ian Somerhalder ultimately won the role; other names in the mix included Matt Czuchry, Jesse Bradford, and Travis Van Winkle. Czuchry was a serious contender, but he had already tested for 'The Good Wife,' and that show was holding him.

How Wesley and Somerhalder sealed it

Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder did not just stroll in and grab the parts. It took multiple tests and even script tweaks as the creative team tried to calibrate the brothers dynamic. Casting stuck with it because they felt those two nailed the complicated push-pull between Stefan and Damon — the thing that basically made the show work for eight seasons.

Inside baseball note: this is a great example of how TV casting gets weird. Studio tests, network holds, a star stuck on another series — all of that shaped who we ended up watching in Mystic Falls. And yeah, imagining Sebastian Stan in either role is fun, but the final pairing speaks for itself.