The Vampire Diaries was about vampires and teenagers, right? Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Stefan (Paul Wesley) vied for the affections of Elena (Nina Dobrev), and it got complicated. But, to co-creator Kevin Williamson, The Vampire Diaries was about something more. Set in the fictional Mystic Falls, VA, to Williamson the show was a small town story.
Williamson was on a Television Critics Association panel for The Vampire Diaries in 2009. He described his focus on Mystic Falls as the show began its eventual eight season run.
Mystic Falls was the heart of ‘The Vampire Diaries’
It’s a cliche to say the location is another character in a show or film. Anything that shoots in New York says that about the city. But, Williamson made a strong case for Mystic Falls being the central focus of The Vampire Diaries.
“We’re really sort of telling the story about a small town and all the sort of evil, this darkness that sort of lies underneath this town and how this vampire comes to town and sort of stirs it all up,” Williamson said. “We’re trying to not make it a high school show. It’s more of a small-town show. Once you get past the premise of girl and vampire, we start to develop the story about a town. And that’s what we love so much about the books was the mythology of the town and what L.J. Smith created was this huge mythology, and we’re diving right in. The vampires are our way into that.”
Two real cities doubled for Mystic Falls
There is no Mystic Falls, VA but there are cities that can resemble it. Two cities stood in for Mystic Falls.
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We shot the pilot in Vancouver. When it came time to do the series, Atlanta has been very competitive with their tax rebate and so that sort of wakes you up. You go down there, our show takes place in Virginia. And there is this huge sort of Southern Civil War element to it where [Damon] fought in the Civil War. So Atlanta has all that beautiful architecture. We are shooting in Covington, Georgia, which is this gorgeous little small town with a town square, with the bell tower and the Confederate soldier statue in the center. I mean, it is gorgeous down there and we have that small-town flavor.
Kevin Williamson, Television Critics Association panel, 2009
Vampires didn’t stay hidden in Mystic Falls
Within the first few episodes of The Vampire Diaries, Williamson allowed the locals to become aware of the vampires in their midst.
“It happens real soon,” Williamson said. “We don’t know exactly who is it in the town? Who are these people that figure it out? And we have a character coming in a couple of episodes that is another series regular that steps in and he comes with an agenda. And it’s a lot of fun and that’s where we are following the books. The town wakes up to it relatively quick and tries to do something about it.”
Williamson may have been referring to Alaric (Matt Davis), but he wasn’t going to spoil it before his first episode.
