Sebastian Stan Says He Turned Down Stefan on The Vampire Diaries
Sebastian Stan was offered the role of Stefan Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries — and said no.
The actor revisited the near-miss with host Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, in an interview reported on 6 October 2026. The part went to Paul Wesley. The Hollywood Reporter
Stan said timing drove the call. He had just come off Kings, the NBC drama in which he played Jack Benjamin, and felt burnt out. He also doubted whether another new network show would survive long enough to reach a second season.
Supernatural fatigue played a part too. Stan had already worked in that space on the 2006 film The Covenant, about four teenage warlocks, and said that history counted against another story about vampires and spells.
His caution made sense at the time. NBC cancelled Kings after one season in 2009. The Vampire Diaries then launched that same year and kept going. It ran for eight seasons to 2017, starring Wesley as Stefan, Ian Somerhalder as his brother Damon and Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert.
Stan said he feels grateful now that he did not take the job. Looking back, he would not change anything about the path his career took instead.
He was not the only alternate Stefan. Matt Czuchry, later known for The Good Wife and Gilmore Girls, was also considered for the role. That wider casting search is detailed in a new book about the series, as excerpted by Entertainment Weekly.
What makes this stand out is the scale of the what-if. Stefan became a fan favourite across eight seasons. Stan went another way entirely.
