The Sweet Magnolias & Vampire Diaries Connection Everyone Missed
TVD characters used to hang out at Sullivan's.
Yes, the title of this article must sound confusing. As you know, The Vampire Diaries is a mystery teen drama that premiered on The CW 14 years ago and ran for eight seasons, following a gang of supernatural creatures including vampires, witches, and werewolves. Meanwhile, Sweet Magnolias is a relatively recent Netflix drama about three friends from South Carolina, and it doesn't have anything to do with the supernatural.
However, there is a surprising connection between the two popular shows. Let us explain!
Same filming location
Set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, The Vampire Diaries was almost entirely shot in Covington, Georgia. In turn, Sweet Magnolias' characters reside in Serenity, South Carolina, which also happens to be this Georgian town in reality.
Curiously, Sweet Magnolias and The Vampire Diaries both feature the same iconic location. Dana Sue's restaurant, Sullivan's, from Sweet Magnolias was once the gathering point for The Vampire Diaries protagonists. Of course, this detail is pretty hard to notice because the restaurant location plays a more significant role in the Netflix drama than it did in the vampire series.
'Honestly I could see them being in the same universe (even though they're canonically not),' a fan commented on Reddit after learning about the series' connection. 'I'm betting Dana Sue is a witch putting a hex on all these hot men to fall in love with her overly-controlling self.'
Why the same location?
The fact that Covington was chosen as the shooting location for both shows is not a coincidence. First, both stories are set in the South, so Georgia is a suitable place for filming, but what's more important, the state offers beneficial tax incentives to TV and movie productions.
And frankly, it's just a beautiful little town to serve as the set for any kind of screen project.