‘The Vampire Diaries’: Candice King Said They Broke an Expensive Animatronic Wolf
The Vampire Diaries wrapped up after eight seasons back in 2017, but that hasn’t stopped fans from hoping for a reboot and keeping up with the cast to hear more details from the set.
The international fame of the CW fantasy series brought several of the original cast members together for a Q&A panel at an event at Comic Con Scotland. As Candice King, Daniel Gillies, David Anders, Michael Malarkey, and Kayla Ewell recounted stories from their past on the show, fans got to hear an interesting story of how they once broke an expensive animatronic wolf on the set.
‘The Vampire Diaries’ still captivates fans
It has been years since The Vampire Diaries wrapped up and even longer since it premiered amidst the fervor of vampire pop culture that seemed to be everywhere back in 2009. In fact, the pilot for the series filmed while Twilight — another vampire-themed tale with an enduring legacy — was filmed in the same city.
Five cast members showed up in all of the show’s 171 episodes: Paul Wesley (as Stefan Salvatore), Ian Somerhalder (as Damon Salvatore), Kat Graham (as Bonnie Bennett), Candice King (as Caroline Forbes), and Zach Roerig (as Matt Donovan). The rest of the cast may not have appeared in every episode, but for many roles, their time on the show was marked by deep drama and lasting fandoms.
In fact, fans have longed for the show to return in some form, but the original cast has mostly made it clear they wouldn’t want to be involved. It’s not that they aren’t proud of their work, but the story came to its conclusion, and the time to move on has passed.
Instead, fans will have to be satisfied with appearances at conventions where parts of the cast reunite to tell tales of the show’s past.
Candice King revealed details about an expensive prop’s destruction
In the Comic-Con Scotland panel, Candice King took the mic to share a story. The participants were asked questions about whether they ever broke something on the set.
“We broke a wolf,” King began before immediately clarifying, “not a real one.” It was a “very expensive” animatronic wolf. Before going into the details of how the destruction took place, she gave some backstory on the iterations of wolves they had on set to fulfill their needs for werewolf-centered plots. That line included “mostly” real wolves and a “stuffy” for close-up shots, but eventually, they knew they needed something flashier. The show’s creators “spent a lot of money,” according to King, on an animatronic wolf that was meant to creep through the scenes.
Instead, it “kept breaking down.” Troubleshooting attempts proved pointless, and the expensive piece of machinery was deemed broken.
What is Candice King doing now?
Now that her days of breaking expensive fake wolves are behind her, what is Candice King doing? Unfortunately, the actor hasn’t yet found a project that has reached the same level of success and renown as The Vampire Diaries. Still, she has stayed active and added several parts to her IMDb filmography.
She had a small recurring plot arc on another CW show, The Originals, in 2018. In 2020, she made a leap to the big screen with an appearance in the romance After We Collide (which starred Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin). She got a starring role in the TV movie Reba McEntire’s Christmas in Tune in 2021. Her most recent appearance was the titular role in the TV movie Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story. In it, King plays Melanie McGuire, a real-life murderer who was found guilty of dismembering her husband.
