The Vampire Diaries: Pedro Pascal To Jason Momoa, Every Actor Almost Cast In The CW Series
The Vampire Diaries almost had a very different cast, with big names like Pedro Pascal, Jason Momoa, Sebastian Stan, and Tessa Thompson nearly joining the CW hit.
The Vampire Diaries: Surprising Casting Secrets From Pedro Pascal to Jason Momoa Revealed(Photo Credit –Facebook/Instagram)
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One of the most popular fantasy romance series and love triangle shows is The Vampire Diaries. Running from 2009 to 2017, it had eight seasons and was loved by the audience. The show saw Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert, Paul Wesley as well as Ian Somerhalder as Stefan and Damon Salvatore.
Kat Graham, Michael Trevino, Candice King, Zach Roerig and Steven R. McQueen were seen in recurring roles. New casting secrets of the show were revealed in Samantha Highfill’s book, I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries. Here’s which names were almost cast, per Entertainment Weekly.
Pedro Pascal To Jason Momoa: Every Actor Almost Cast In The Vampire Diaries
For the role of Elena, the network wanted Ashlee Simpson but Julie Plec, the showrunner, was not in favor of it. “No offense to Ashlee Simpson, we were just reacting negatively to feeling like a piece of talent with a certain name was being forced on us,” she explained about why she didn’t like it.
“We were pushing back against it,” Julie added and felt that Ashlee did not get a chance to be considered since the creative team felt like the channel was bullying them into picking her. Sebastian Stan and Matt Czuchry were potential names for Damon. Sebastian also auditioned for Stefan’s role.
But he was doing another show and the timelines clashed which cut the conversations short. As for Bonnie, it was either Kate Graham or Tessa Thompson and the former ended up getting finalized. “Kat had this kind of innocent quality about her, this wide-eyed innocent thing,” per the book.
When it came to the role of Alaric Saltzman, Matthew Davis was the first name and he did get the role but Jason Momoa was a strong contender and Joe Manganiello had also read for the part of the vampire hunter. Tyler was almost played by Matt Lauria who was almost cast for the character.
Joseph Morgan gained a lot of popularity for playing Klaus Michaelson but there were several other names that were in the running for the much-loved character. Taylor Kitch, Billy Magnussen, Finn Wittrock, Chris Geere as well as Bill Skarsgard were all considered for the part of the original hybrid.
Sebastian Roché, who played Mikael, the father of Klaus, had also read for the role of Klaus. And then lastly, Pedro Pascal really wanted to portray the character of Marcel Gerard on The Originals, the Vampire Diaries spinoff. Julie also wanted this to happen but “he was a little too old for The CW.”
Charles Michael Davis later got the role of the grey character with many shades. The Vampire Diaries and The Originals both enjoyed tremendous popularity and fanbase over the years and have become major classics.
