‘The Vampire Diaries’: Jo and Alaric’s Gemini Twins Were Only Written to Incorporate Candice King’s Real-Life Pregnancy
The Vampire Diaries is certainly not the first show that’s had to deal with real-life changes to their characters’ appearance or availability that impacted the script. When a central character has a pregnancy that coincides with the filming of a series, the writers have to make some choices about what to do next.
Will they hide the character’s growing belly behind objects on the set and try to ignore the obvious? Will they write the character off the show for the duration of the later months of the pregnancy? Will they incorporate the pregnancy into the plot?
For Candice King’s character on The Vampire Diaries, the writers went with the latter, incorporating King’s pregnancy into the show. Here’s how it changed the plot!
Candice King played Caroline Forbes on ‘The Vampire Diaries’
The Vampire Diaries was a long-running dramatic series from the CW that premiered in 2009 and ran for eight seasons. The plot revolved around a pair of vampire brothers who have quarreled for decades but have now returned to their hometown, where a love feud is giving them a playground for old vengeances and sibling rivalry.
Candice King’s character Caroline Forbes is one of the primary female characters in the show. Early on, she’s a human and close friend to Elena, the show’s early love interest for both brothers. When Caroline is severely injured in a car accident, she’s turned into a vampire through a series of happenings in which one of the brothers (Damon) heals her with his blood while another character (Katherine) uses that knowledge to transition Caroline into one of the undead.
Caroline became a fan favorite and was one of the only cast members — according to IMDb — to appear in the series’ entire 171 episodes (the others were Stefan, Damon, Bonnie, and Matt).
Candice King’s real-life pregnancy prompted a new plot point
In a panel discussion about the show, Candice King was asked if her real-life pregnancy caused the pregnancy plot that followed on the show. King first joked that she’s “not that method,” a reference to the fact that her real-life pregnancy came first — not the other way around.
She said it was “a hoot” to have to call her bosses, knowing they’d been busy writing for the next season, and say, “You know all that work you’ve just done for the last couple of months? Surprise, b******! I’m pregnant! You have to redo all of it.”
The reality certainly threw the writers for a loop, and they came up with a wild plot point in which another character (Jo) was pregnant, but was killed, so they were magically transported into Candice. King joked, “Like the Virgin Mary of vampires?”
King went on to clarify that Jo’s character, her romance with Alaric, and the Gemini twin plotline, in general, would likely not have been part of the story at all. It’s unclear if King’s pregnancy was the only reason the Gemini coven, Liv, Luke, Kai, and the heretics became part of the story, but from the way King told it, it seems it was her pregnancy that brought viewers some of the best villains in the series.
Jo’s twins became a focal point for a spinoff series
In the panel discussion, King went on to explain that “the running joke with [show creator] Julie [Plec] and I is she’s like, ‘You got a baby, and I got a third show out of it.'” That reference is to the series Legacies, which featured the twins from the plot line developed to accommodate King’s pregnancy.
In the spinoff, the twins — Lizzie and Josie — are students at The Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. This additional series gave King the chance to briefly revive the part of Caroline Forbes when she was appointed headmaster in the Season 4 (and, ultimately, series) finale.
King also asked the Legacies writers to write a small part for her daughter Florence in the last episode, as she had been on set while growing up.
Unfortunately, fans never got a chance to see what could have been because the show was canceled before its fifth season, which would have featured Caroline’s return more fully.
