Expecting a one-season run, Sebastian Stan passed on The Vampire Diaries lead
Sebastian Stan says he nearly starred in a vampire series you know well, but he bailed, convinced it would flame out after just one season.
On Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Sebastian Stan said he was offered Stefan Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries and walked away. Coming off NBC’s short-lived drama Kings, he figured The CW’s new vampire soap might flame out after a season and didn’t have it in him to jump straight into another grind.
"They offered me Paul Wesley's role. I'd just come off Kings... I felt really burnt out from that not working out."
Horowitz raised the near-miss after Samantha Highfill’s 2025 oral history, I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries, resurfaced the casting saga. The book lists Stan among the finalists for both leads and says the studio seriously considered him but ultimately couldn’t lock him in because of his Kings commitments.
The role went to Paul Wesley, and the show did a lot more than survive a year: The Vampire Diaries ran eight seasons (2009–2017) on The CW, anchored by Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, and Nina Dobrev. Stan’s path pivoted soon after — he broke out as Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a turn he’s said arrived after some lean, stressful years of TV work.
Keeping Gotham guesses alive
Stan also kept things deliberately vague about his mystery role in The Batman Part II. When pressed, he cracked a joke by dropping into a gravelly Bat-voice and pretending he’s the guy under the cowl — and then offered nothing else.
- Harvey Dent/Two-Face
- Victor Zsasz
- Hush
Those are the names fans keep floating, and Stan has neither confirmed nor denied any of them. Director Matt Reeves is keeping plot and casting tightly under wraps, with the sequel currently expected in 2027 .