The Vampire Diaries

''The Vampire Diaries'' is an American supernatural teen drama television series developed by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, based on the book series of the same name written by L. J. Smith. The series premiered on The CW on September 10, 2009, and concluded on March 10, 2017, having aired 171 episodes over eight seasons.

The pilot episode attracted the largest audience for The CW of any series premiere since the network began in 2006; the first season averaged 3.60 million viewers. It became the most-watched series on the network before being supplanted by ''Arrow''. The show has received numerous award nominations, winning four People's Choice Awards and many Teen Choice Awards.

In April 2015, lead actress Nina Dobrev, who played Elena Gilbert, confirmed that she would be leaving the show after its sixth season. Dobrev returned to record a voiceover for the seventh-season finale and returned as a guest star in the series finale. In March 2016, The CW renewed the series for an eighth season, but in July of that year announced that the eighth season, consisting of 16 episodes, would be the show's last. The final season began airing on October 21, 2016, and ended March 10, 2017.

The concepts and characters developed in the series served to launch a media franchise that includes other television series, web series, novels and comic books. The television series '' The Originals'' (2013–2018)which also aired on The CWwas the first major entry in this collection of connected works, followed by a spin-off of ''The Originals'' entitled '' Legacies'' (2018–2022), which aired on The CW as well.

Series overview

The series is set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, a town charged with supernatural history. It follows the life of Elena Gilbert ( Nina Dobrev), a teenage girl who has just lost both parents in a car accident, as she falls in love with a 162-year-old vampire named Stefan Salvatore ( Paul Wesley). Their relationship becomes increasingly complicated as Stefan's mysterious older brother Damon Salvatore ( Ian Somerhalder) returns, with a plan to bring back their past love Katherine Pierce (also played by Dobrev), a vampire who looks exactly like Elena. Although Damon initially harbors a grudge against his brother for forcing him to become a vampire, he later reconciles with Stefan and falls in love with Elena, creating a love triangle among the three. Both brothers attempt to protect Elena as they face various villains and threats to their town, including Katherine. The brothers' history and the town's mythology are revealed through flashbacks as the series goes on.

Additional storylines revolve around the other inhabitants of the town, most notably Elena's younger brother Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen) and aunt Jenna Sommers ( Sara Canning), her best friends Bonnie Bennett ( Kat Graham) and Caroline Forbes (Candice King), their mutual friends Matt Donovan ( Zach Roerig) and Tyler Lockwood ( Michael Trevino), Matt's older sister Vicki Donovan ( Kayla Ewell), and their history teacher, vampire hunter Alaric Saltzman ( Matthew Davis). The town's politics are orchestrated by descendants of the original founding families, all comprising a "Founders' Council". They guard the town mainly from vampires and other supernatural threats such as werewolves, witches, hybrids, and ghosts.

Cast and characters

* Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert (season 1–6; guest season 8), a young orphan who falls in love with vampire Stefan Salvatore and later his brother, Damon, creating a love triangle. When Stefan shuts his humanity off after being blackmailed by Klaus, Damon is given the opportunity to grow closer to Elena. This results in her being further drawn into the supernatural world and results in her struggling to survive supernatural events in the town. In the sixth-season finale, Elena's life was tied to Bonnie's in such a way that as long as Bonnie is alive, Elena will remain asleep. Damon put Elena in a coffin and had her hidden in a warehouse in Brooklyn for the next 60 years or so while he waits for her to wake up. In the series finale, Elena's curse is broken, she reunites with Damon, and they live a long and happy life together with her becoming a doctor.
**Dobrev also portrays Elena's doppelgänger, Katerina Petrova, also known as Katherine Pierce. Dobrev sporadically appeared as Katherine in subsequent seasons, with Katherine playing a significant role in the fifth season.
**Dobrev also plays the progenitor of the Petrova doppelgängers and Silas's true love, Amara, during the fifth season, whom he had sought in the afterlife for two thousand years.
* Paul Wesley as Stefan Salvatore, a good-hearted and affectionate vampire and the complete opposite of his older brother, Damon Salvatore. Later in the series, Stefan reverts to his old ways as a Ripper to save Damon from a werewolf bite. His role becomes more antagonistic, after being forced to turn his humanity off. Eventually, he returns to his good-hearted and caring self and reconciles with Elena, but the relationship doesn't last long. He becomes human again and marries Caroline in the eighth season and is killed afterwards in the series finale as he sacrifices himself to save Mystic Falls. Stefan finds peace in the afterlife with Lexi, his best friend who was killed by Damon in the first season.
**Wesley also portrays his revealed doppelgänger, Silas, the world's first immortal being, in the fourth and fifth seasons.
**Wesley also played another doppelgänger, Tom Avery, during the fifth season.
* Ian Somerhalder as Damon Salvatore, Stefan's malevolent vampire brother. He is mostly thought of as selfish and manipulative, but later on begins to display a more caring side. Throughout the series, Damon is able to repair his relationship with Stefan, and becomes best friends with Alaric and Bonnie. Though his love for Elena is initially one-sided, she begins to develop feelings for him as they work together to save Stefan after he's given in to his Ripper side. They begin dating in the fourth season, after Elena transitions into a vampire, and continue to have an on-and-off relationship until a now human Elena is put into her deep sleep at the end of the sixth season. They reunite in the series finale when Elena wakes up from the sleeping spell and they marry and spend the remainder of their lives together. Damon then finds peace with Stefan in the afterlife.
* Steven R. McQueen as Jeremy Gilbert (seasons 1–6; guest season 8), Elena's younger brother, later revealed to be her biological cousin. He later becomes a member of The Five, a vampire hunting group. Jeremy is killed in the fourth season after Katherine throws him onto Silas, who drains his blood. He is resurrected by Bonnie Bennett, his love interest, in the fourth-season finale. In the sixth season, he leaves Mystic Falls to hunt vampires, unbeknownst to everyone other than Alaric. Jeremy returns to Mystic Falls after Elena's curse is broken, and begins working as a teacher at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted.
* Sara Canning as Jenna Sommers (seasons 1–2; guest seasons 3, 5 & 8), Elena and Jeremy's aunt and legal guardian. Jenna was killed in season two during Klaus' ritual after being turned into a vampire. She finds peace in the afterlife with her family.
* Kat Graham as Bonnie Bennett, Elena and Caroline's best friend and a very powerful witch. She has died numerous times but always found a way to return. She develops and controls her powers with the help of her grandmother, Sheila or "Grams", another witch in the family. She is often able to use her magic to help the group, and while she initially hates vampires, particularly Damon, she ends up warming up to them and they become best friends after being stuck in a prison world with him for four months. Bonnie has lost and regained her ability to do magic multiple times throughout the show. She spent the second through fifth seasons in an on-again, off-again relationship with Elena's brother Jeremy and later became involved with Enzo. In the seventh season, Bonnie faces the challenge of having received Rayna Cruz's hunters' curse, which puts all her vampire friends at risk. In the series finale, Bonnie breaks the sleeping spell on Elena and leaves Mystic Falls to travel the world while a deceased Enzo watches over her from the afterlife.
* Candice King as Caroline Forbes, Elena and Bonnie's best friend, who was insecure and often jealous of Elena at first, but after becoming a vampire in the second season becomes more caring and sympathetic. Neurotic but lovable, Caroline has been the love interest of many of the male characters. Initially serving as Damon's plaything in the first season, which she still hates him for, she has had serious relationships with Matt, Tyler, Alaric, and Stefan, and was long the subject of Klaus's adoration. Caroline gives birth to Alaric and Jo's twin daughters after becoming pregnant with them through a spell cast by the Gemini Coven. She married Stefan shortly before his death in the eighth season and repaired her relationship with Damon. Caroline raises the twins with Alaric, with whom she opens the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted, as her mother watches over her from the afterlife.
* Zach Roerig as Matt Donovan, Vicki's younger brother and Elena's childhood friend and ex-boyfriend, who became romantically involved with Caroline in the first season. They remain good friends even after breaking up during the second season. Matt wants no part in the supernatural events in his town and later is at odds with the vampires as he becomes a police officer and tries to protect the town from them. He becomes the sheriff in the eighth season and plans to run for mayor.
* Kayla Ewell as Vicki Donovan (season 1; recurring seasons 3 & 8; guest seasons 2 & 5), the drug-addicted older sister of Matt. She appears to be dating Tyler but is also interested in Jeremy. She is turned into a vampire by Damon and is killed by Stefan shortly after. Following the destruction of the Other Side, the supernatural limbo where she resided after her death, Vicki was sent to Hell. She reappears in the series finale where she rings the Maxwell bell 12 times and calls upon hellfire, which destroys Hell. Vicki later finds peace with Tyler in the afterlife and watches over Matt. Ewell left the show after the first season but has appeared as a guest in multiple seasons since.
* Michael Trevino as Tyler Lockwood (seasons 1–6; guest seasons 7–8), a werewolf, later turned into a hybrid, Matt's best friend, and the son of the mayor of Mystic Falls. His family carry a lycanthropic trait, being descended from an ancient werewolf clan. His uncle Mason was also a werewolf, who was killed by Damon in the second season. He was turned into the first successful hybrid by Klaus. In the fifth-season finale, he is returned to being just a human. He reactivates his werewolf gene and leaves town at the end of the sixth season. He appears in a couple episodes of the seventh season, protecting Elena's coffin. He is killed by a humanity-less Damon in the eighth season. Tyler finds peace in the afterlife with Vicki and watches over Matt.
* Matt Davis as Alaric Saltzman (seasons 1–3, 6–8; guest seasons 4–5), a history teacher, vampire hunter, and Jenna's love interest. Davis left the show at the end of season three after Alaric was killed. His character returned as a regular from the sixth season onwards, after he was resurrected in the fifth season. His vampirism is stripped away by magic, turning him into a human again after being saved by Josette Laughlin; the two begin dating. Jo becomes pregnant and they plan to marry, but she is murdered by her brother Malachai at their wedding. The Gemini coven, Jo's witch family, was able to transfer the babies to Caroline's womb, and she gives birth to their twin daughters. Caroline and Alaric move to Dallas together and begin a relationship, but end it when Caroline decides to be with Stefan after his return at the end of the seventh season. Alaric establishes the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted with Caroline, with whom he raises the twins, as Jo watches over him from the afterlife.
* Joseph Morgan as Klaus Mikaelson (seasons 3–4, recurring season 2; guest seasons 5 & 7), the Original Hybrid, who begins to build an army of new "hybrids", which are half vampire and half werewolf. During the third season, Klaus began to develop feelings for Caroline and falls in love with her. Klaus eventually moves to New Orleans