The Vampire Diaries ended earlier this year, and while there were a some fans with complaints, many seemed content with how the series ended. While co-creator Julie Plec does deserve some credit for the way the series wrapped up, she recently stated that had it not been for a few compromises with co-creator Kevin Williamson, things could've ended a lot differently. Plec had this to say about what might have happened:
I wanted flash-forwards. Ever since we decided to put Elena in a sleeping beauty spell that couldn't be broken until Bonnie died, I wanted to see the scene with 85-year-old Bonnie and Damon by her side, and they're the best of friends. And then she dies of natural causes because I just thought that Bonnie deserved a rich and full life. I had this scene in my head for so long and then Kevin [felt] that stories are more impactful when you play them in the here and now. So we compromised by showing everybody just slightly ahead in their life and having those characters observing from peace, which in my opinion worked like a charm and I'm so happy we did it that way.
So while Julie Plec did get her dream of having flash-forwards in The Vampire Diaries finale, called "I Was Feeling Epic," she had to compromise to only push things forward a little bit. Now that it's been done, Plec now agrees with Kevin Williamson that it made things more impactful overall. The compromise really shows the amount of faith Plec and Williamson had in each other throughout the show's run, as Plec remarked to EW that she wanted The Vampire Diaries finale to be an episode fans list among their favorite finales. Having said that, Plec also mentioned she was aware at the time it aired that the finale wouldn't please every fan, but that she ultimately was more interested in making a finale for fans who wanted to see the relationship between the brothers resolve.
Speaking of Stefan and Damon, Julie Plec also shared that it wasn't always a sure thing that Stefan was going to be the one to sacrifice himself. In fact, Plec said The Vampire Diaries team had sold themselves on killing off the older brother when Kevin Williamson entered the room and changed everyone's mind by just asking a couple simple questions:
The other big debate we had was: Which Salvatore brother is going to take the bullet for the other? We debated that so much because we could make a really strong case for either. And we finally settled on Damon was going to die. And then Kevin walked into the room and he's like, 'What's Stefan's life going to be like?' I said, 'He's going to be happy with Caroline and uh uh... uh, I don't know.' I'm like, 'You're right, it needs to go the other way.' It was so funny because we had thought about it in the room so much that we had talked ourselves into one path, but all we needed was him to walk in and be like, 'But... isn't it cooler the other way?' And so we switched it. He gets all the credit for that.
As to whether or not she would change anything about The Vampire Diaries finale now that its aired, Julie Plec wouldn't go into specifics about what she wished they hadn't done. She did give a clue, however, and stated that there was an event that had something to do with kissing, and that's going to be as much as fans of the series will hear from her about it for the time being.
Any fan now wishing to binge the entirety of The Vampire Diaries can currently do so by streaming the series on Netflix. For a look at some shows that will be available to watch in the final days of December, visit our fall premiere guide. Anyone wishing to see what's ahead for TV in 2018 can find out by heading over to our midseason premiere guide. Those wondering which shows were canceled in 2017 will find out upon visiting our cancellation guide.
