One star of The CW’s The Vampire Diaries is headed back to the world of the undead — but this time, he won’t be in front of the camera. According to Deadline Paul Wesley, who played Stefan Salvatore on The CW’s The Vampire Diaries, is set to produce a new vampire comedy currently in development at FOX. Per the report, the series will be written by Unstable co-creator Victor Fresco and directed by The Rookie’s Liz Friedlander. Fresco, Friedlander, and Wesley are set to executive produce along with Aaron Kaplan of Kapital Entertainment and Tracy Katsky of KatCo. The series does not yet have a title.
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The series will follow a 25-year-old vampire struggling with running the family business for his murderous and suffocating vampire parents all while trying to chase his own dream to become an actor. The idea comes from Friedlander, Wesley, and Kaplan before being shared with Fresco.
For Wesley, this marks a return to vampire stories. The actor portrayed Stefan Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries for eight seasons between 2009 and 2017. He also appeared in the same role for an episode of The Originals. Wesley has also directed various episodes of The Vampire Diaries as well as spinoff series, Legacies. Currently, Wesley appears as James T. Kirk in Paramount+’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
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The project may come as a little bit of a surprise for fans of The Vampire Diaries. Back in 2023, Wesley explained in an interview with InStyle that he not only didn’t miss his The Vampire Diaries role, but he had no plans to play another vampire again — though this new series certainly offers a way to tell a vampire story without Wesley having to portray one. There is currently no indication that Wesley will appear on screen in the series or have any involvement other than his executive producer role.
“I don’t really miss anything about playing him, and I don’t mean that in a [negative way],” Wesley said of playing Stefan. “Eight years is a long time, and I’m so glad to put that to rest. Eight seasons. Because the show ran for such a long time, in order for it not to become monotonous every season, he sort of had a different arc. At one point he was pure evil, and he started out as the good guy and then he ended as the good guy. But I liked the challenge of trying to keep the character fresh.”
