Yahoo News The Vampire Diaries - 14 things you didn't know about the supernatural series
With over 171 episodes and the title of longest-running vampire show, The Vampire Diaries well and truly made its mark.
What's more – thanks to its ongoing spin-offs and a truly dedicated fandom – we continue to learn more about our favourite characters years after the emotional finale played out on our screens.
Whether you were #TeamStelena or #TeamDelena (and sorry, but there really is only one correct answer to that question), here's some trivia and details you might not already know about the fangtastic show.
Elena Gilbert (and Katherine Pierce) was almost played by completely different person
It has been long-rumoured that High School Musical legend Ashley Tisdale was eyed up for the leading role, while Jessica Simpson's sister Ashlee was reportedly also on the table.
Of course we now know that Nina Dobrev eventually landed the role, but she has since spoken about the intense competition.
"Half of Hollywood I think went out for the role, for all our roles," she previously told E! News." I guess I did something right, here I am. We had to discover and find our characters. Every episode we learned something more and something more, and eventually we created and moulded these amazing, awesome characters."
Apparently news of Dobrev's casting initially created some backlash among fans of the book, as the character of Elena had been written as having blonde hair and blue eyes. But we'd challenge anyone to take issue with her portrayal now.
Nina Dobrev's initial audition actually went wrong
While we're on the subject of Elena, it might surprise you to know that Nina's first attempt at joining TVD crew didn't go very well.
Turns out, she had been sick during her first audition and ended up sending along a tape to make up for it - which clearly did the trick in the end.
The Salvatore brothers almost weren't the Salvatore brothers
Apparently the original script had their names listed as Whitmore, but the executive producers decided to change it back to Salvatore to stay more true to the books.
"That could be the dumbest thing we ever could have thought," Julie Plec later said (via THR). "Stefan and Damon Salvatore is the perfect family name."
The show very nearly didn't happen at all
Can you imagine a world without The Vampire Diaries? It doesn’t bear thinking about.
The show's creator Kevin Williamson almost passed on the idea, telling The Independent: "In the beginning when I read it, I didn't want to be involved with it because I felt it was a sort of Twilight rip-off, no matter which came first… The premise was exactly the same: girl falls in love with vampire, and I felt that it had been done and that nobody was going to do another vampire story."
Thankfully, fellow showrunner Julie Plec pushed him to keep reading the books and he soon changed his mind.
Paul Wesley originally went for the role of Damon Salvatore
Hard to imagine, because each of the Salvatore brothers seemed so perfectly cast, but Paul first auditioned for the part of Damon.
“Paul auditioned like 15 times, and Ian kind of appeared out of the blue," Julie once told EW.
Actually, the role of Damon Salvatore was highly sought after
A number of other stars from TVD also went after the brooding bad boy, including Michael Trevino (who went on to play Tyler Lockwood) and Zach Roerig (who became a fan-favourite as Matt Donovan).
David Gallagher - AKA Simon from 7th Heaven - auditioned for the role too. "He impressed us so much originally...but the whole 7th Heaven thing, I wondered if he'd ever be able to get past that," Julie Plec previously told E News.
Ian Somerhalder did such a spot on job of giving Damon all those complex layers, that we couldn't imagine anyone else in that spot. Even if he also messed up his original audition (his words, not ours).
Tyler Lockwood wasn't originally going to be a main character
What would we have done without the Caroline/Klaus/Tyler phiasco?
According to Julie Plec, he was "strictly in a supporting role" to begin with, but the werewolf/hybrid storyline changed everything and saw him bumped up to a series regular (via THR).
The show made a change to Katherine Pierce because of Nina Dobrev
In the book series, Katherine Pierce's real name was Katherine von Swartzschild - from German roots.
In the TV show, she became known as Katerina Petrova and spoke Bulgarian fluently - this was because Nina Dobrev herself was born in Bulgaria. Dobrev's real name is actually Nikolina Konstantinova Dobreva.
There's a Fifty Shades of Grey easter egg
You may remember the ongoing speculation about who would take on the role of Christian Grey in the NSFW movie, and Ian Somerhalder was one of the names being bandied about.
Obviously Jamie Dornan eventually starred in the film (alongside Dakota Johnson), but in season eight of TVD you'll spy Damon Salvatore reading a copy of the Fifty Shades book.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Sarah Michelle Gellar turned down TVD
In what would have been a move from Vampire Slayer to undead vamp, Sarah MG was originally eyed to take the role of Rose (eventually played by The Walking Dead's Lauren Cohan).
"She was very appreciative but just said no," Williamson revealed to the New York Post.
What an epic supernatural crossover that would have been.
The Mystic Grill turned out to be a real place
The cast were said to hang out in that part of the set when they weren't actually filming.
And, due to the attention and love around the show, a real Mystic Grill was opened in Georgia (where TVD was filmed).
The Vampire Diaries had a very different ending planned
Showrunners Kevin and Julie came up with an initial plan all the way back around the time of season two.
"Both brothers should die in the name of saving their girl and then be watching her like ghosts—because we had introduced the Other Side—as she went off into the sunset to live her life," Julie revealed to EW, "and maybe marry Matt Donovan or maybe become a doctor, but that those brothers would be side-by-side watching her live."
We’re kind of glad this one didn't happen, tbh.
Vampire Diaries' fans really did influence the storylines
Kevin Williamson has been fairly vocal about his own support for Stelena, but fans of the show seemed to be rooting for Damon and Elena much earlier than they had planned.
"In season two, there was an influence pushing Damon and Elena together faster than we would have ever done it," Julie Plec once said. "And we did everything we could to try to create obstacles, to tear them apart, to bring Stefan and Elena closer together. But you could feel the magnetic pull -- not just of Twitter, but of the fandom really rooting for this."
What's more, Williamson recently revealed that fans of the show made Damon's story arc particularly difficult.
"Once we made him nice we couldn't turn Damon into a villain to save our lives," he said during last year's New York Comic Con. "The audience loved him no matter why. And we kept trying to turn the audience against him again just so that we can win him back again and it was really hard."
Ian Somerhalder was initially "pissed" about Damon Salvatore turning 'good'
The actor told Digital Spy exclusively that while he was initially "livid" about his character becoming a better person, he did eventually realise it was the right move.
"That vulnerability in Damon Salvatore is what made him a well-rounded character that could stand the course of eight seasons," he said.
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