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Julie Plec Had To Stop ‘The Vampire Diaries’ From Going Too Dark: There Was Nearly A Succubus In The Show

By Alexandria Ingham
Published on: 06:19 PST, Dec 6, 2016

The Vampire Diaries is now no stranger to darkness, but that’s not what Julie Plec originally wanted. In fact, way back in Season 1, a character’s storyline was changed early to avoid getting too dark too early. Yes, one of the characters was supposed to be a succubus in the early days, which is far darker than any vampire, witch, or werewolf seen in those early days.

The Vampire Diaries Season 8 features two sirens who suck the lives out of people to remain young and beautiful. A succubus in supernatural lore is a creature that sucks the life out of people through kissing, so it’s understandable that this was a creature avoided in the early days. When we consider just who the character was supposed to be, it’s even more understandable.

Melinda Clark’s Kelly Donovan was the woman who Plec originally set as a succubus in The Vampire Diaries. For those who don’t quite remember, Kelly is Matt Donovan’s mother, who left town as quickly as she appeared. She wouldn’t win any Mother of the Year awards considering she pretty much abandoned her high school children in Mystic Falls, but there was a darker storyline planned for her.

Plec shares that the big reveal of her supernatural side would have been during The Vampire Diaries Season 1. It’s difficult to see how that would have fit in now so many other elements of the story were completely different that early.

Considering Matt is the only purely human connection to the show, Plec made a good call. Entertainment Weekly points out that he has died and had vampire blood in his system, but he has never been a supernatural creature in The Vampire Diaries. He is the only one who has completely kept hold of their humanity.

Surprisingly, the succubus storyline did make it to the filming. Clark did film a scene where she sucked the life out of somebody before hooking up with Damon. Plec and her writers took a step back from there and wondered what they could do next. There was a conversation about all the other demons and supernatural entities that they could introduce from that point, and it was very clear early on that this show could get extremely dark.

While the succubus storyline was scrapped, there was still talk of a demonic creature. There have been dark storylines since, but nothing quite as dark as The Vampire Diaries Season 8. Every other year, the storylines have involved some type of vampire, werewolf, or witch. This is the first time that a different type of supernatural entity has been shown, one that would have been familiar with Supernatural fans.

Where did the siren come from? Plec has shared that she and her writers looked into the originals of witches and vampires. Sirens were once believed to be vampires because they would suck blood and souls. It made sense to bring that type of creature in for the final season of The Vampire Diaries.

Why wasn’t the succubus used? The writers wanted to keep some sort of humanity storyline going. Sirens could be linked back to humanity, while a succubus couldn’t as easily.

Plec doesn’t regret her decision to avoid the succubus storyline, but it could explain why Donovan’s mom showed up and then quickly left. It did seem to be quite pointless, except to show that Matt and Vicki didn’t exactly have the best support system around them.

The Vampire Diaries Season 8 continues on Friday with the midseason finale this week, and there is likely more about the Donovan storyline coming up. After all, Matt’s dad has now appeared and he seemed to understand more than he was originally letting on. Why else would he pretend to be compelled? It just looks like the Donovan family line is going to remain human, unlike the original intention.

[Featured Image by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]

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