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Why Was The Vampire Diaries Canceled?
Here's why Season 8 of The CW's supernatural teen drama series was its last.
Traditionally, the way you kill a vampire is with a crucifix through the heart. For a vampire TV show, however, cancelation will end things just as good as garlic or holy water. Just ask The CW supernatural teen drama series The Vampire Diaries, which ran for eight seasons between 2009 and 2017 (all eight of which are currently streaming on Peacock).
Although the show, which was based on the hit book series of the same name by L. J. Smith, was a hit, it was not renewed for a ninth season. But, as is perhaps befitting a vampire show, it didn’t exactly stay dead.
Why Was The Vampire Diaries Canceled?
The Vampire Diaries, which was the most-watched CW series before Arrow began, made its debut on September 10, 2009. Nina Dobrev starred as Elena Gilbert, an orphaned teenage girl living in the town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, who falls in love with a 161-year-old vampire named Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). Stefan’s bother, Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder), enters the picture and a love triangle emerges as they protect the town from various supernatural threats.
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The show was successful for nearly a decade, even continuing after Dobrev left the series at the end of Season 6. But, it was the show’s creators, Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, who decided it was time to end the series after Season 8.
“What it came down to for us was, let’s start talking about the season and see what it feels like, see what stories we want to tell, see where those stories take us,” Plec told The Hollywood Reporter. “And then if it feels like it should be over, then it should be over.”
According to Plec, it was a combination of narrative reasons and more practical ones, like logistics and contracts that were set to end, that made it the right call to bring the show to an end on their own terms.
“Once we realized that and we made the decision that it should be over, then all the phone calls happened and all the ‘OK, let’s call it, when are we going to call it, how are we going to call it’ conversations were had,” she said.
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Plec announced that Season 8 would be the finale season to a crowd of fans at San Diego Comic-Con in 2016, partially to assure them that this was not an untimely end brought about by a network-mandated cancellation. It was just time for The Vampire Diaries to end — though the story would continue.
Were There Vampire Diaries Spinoffs?
A spin-off of the series, The Originals, which followed the vampire-werewolf hybrid Klaus Mikaelson (Joseph Morgan) in the French Quarter of New Orleans, made its debut in 2013 and ran for five seasons, ending in 2018, the year after The Vampire Diaries aired its finale.
In January of 2018, a new spin-off series called Legacies, which followed Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell), was announced. The series was a continuation of both the original Vampire Diaries and The Originals, featuring characters from both shows. Legacies aired for four seasons, ending in 2022.
Catch all eight seasons of The Vampire Diaries, streaming now on Peacock!
