‘The Vampire Diaries’ Filmed Its Pilot While ‘Twilight’ Was Filming in the Same City
The Vampire Diaries rode the vampire wave of the early 2000s. With hot young stars Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder, and Paul Wesley in the lead, the show captivated audiences from 2009 to 2017. The series featured not only vampires but also other supernatural beings. And eventually, it spawned a media franchise including books, comics, and spinoffs. But the teen drama wasn’t alone in sating audiences’ desire for fanged immortals. Actor Candice King recently revealed The Vampire Diaries cast and crew filmed in the same city at the same time as Twilight.
When did ‘The Vampire Diaries’ debut?
When The Vampire Diaries premiered on The CW, the early-2000s vampire craze — which also included HBO’s True Blood and the first Twilight movie — was sweeping the nation. Audiences of all ages couldn’t get enough of the sultry bloodsuckers, and as quickly as shows and books came out, fans would snap them up eagerly. So the creators of The Vampire Diaries probably knew they had a hit when the show debuted in 2009.
The series follows Elena Gilbert, a teen who falls for a mysterious vampire, Stefan Salvatore. His brother, Damon, soon enters the picture, sparking a love triangle that lasts for years. All the while, the characters deal with doppelgangers, mysterious entities, and other supernatural occurrences in the town of Mystic Falls.
‘The Vampire Diaries’ and ‘Twilight’ filmed scenes in the same place at the same time
Even as the cast and crew of The Vampire Diaries filmed the show’s pilot in Vancouver, another vampire-themed project was underway in the same city.
Candice King, who played Caroline Forbes in The Vampire Diaries, recently revealed that when they were filming the pilot, they learned that the cast and crew of Twilight were not only shooting at the same time in the same city but also staying in the same hotel.
“There was this very bizarre thing of, like, ‘the Twilight crew’ and ‘the Vampire Diaries crew,'” King joked in a panel interview posted on the Monopoly Events YouTube channel. “Everyone’s down at the same bars … It was very interesting … We were immediately bonded, and that just resonated throughout the entirety of filming, even today.”
She said everyone working on The Vampire Diaries set shared an “instant camaraderie.”
Both are now cult classics
The Vampire Diaries and Twilight became enduring hits in their own right, each with a passionate fan base. But the cast and crew of The Vampire Diaries still have a lot of love for one another. They have remained close over the years and look back fondly on the years they spent filming the series.
“It’s nice to know we’ve all shared this experience, and I know not to take it for granted because that doesn’t come around very often,” King told TV Guide in an interview commemorating the show’s 10th anniversary. “But it was just so special. We had so much fun filming the pilot.”
The vampire phenomenon is still going strong, with new projects such as Interview With the Vampire making waves. But for certain fans, The Vampire Diaries remains one of the best examples of the genre, oozing romance, action, and supernatural thrills.
