Entertainment Weekly – The “Thunderbolts*” and “Gilmore Girls” stars were in the running for the future CW hit — plus more secrets from casting.

Before there was Paul Wesley’s Stefan on The Vampire Diaries, there was Sebastian Stan.

For I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries — a new book out Sep. 9 — author and Entertainment Weekly’s own executive TV editor Samantha Highfill somehow managed to find new intel after years of reporting on the hit CW show. That includes some factoids on the casting process for leads Stefan and Damon.

In an exclusive excerpt from the book, key members of the show’s team reveal that Stan (the future Marvel superstar behind the character of Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier) took a meeting for the role of Stefan, the brooding vampire hottie eventually portrayed by Wesley on The Vampire Diaries.

At the time, Stan was on “that movie with all the hot boys” — the phrase series co-creator Julie Plec uses to describe 2006’s The Covenant, which also starred Steven Strait (The Expanse), Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl), Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights), and Toby Hemingway (In Time). Stan also read for the role of Damon, Ian Somerhalder’s future part, while Strait was considered for Stefan too. Stan had to bow out, however, over commitments to Kings, the 2004 King David-inspired NBC drama.

As Highfill reports in her book, another name considered for Stefan included Nathaniel Buzolic (the future “Original” vampire Kol Mikaelson), while Matt Czuchry (Gilmore Girls), Jesse Bradford (Bring It On), and Travis Van Winkle (The Last Ship) were in conversation for Damon.

[…]

GREG ORSON: There was a meeting with a star for Stefan.

LESLI GELLES-RAYMOND: It was Sebastian Stan. He came over to meet, so we got to spend some time chatting with him. It was very cool. We were totally interested in him, and he was discussed at the studio the first time we tested Stefan, but we couldn’t do it because he was tied to another show when this happened, so it didn’t work out. He was tied to Kings.

[…]
LESLI GELLES-RAYMOND: For a while, their dream cast would’ve been Steven Strait [for Stefan] and Sebastian Stan [for Damon], because Sebastian also read for Damon. That was Stefan and Damon for a while. But Sebastian was on Kings, so that wasn’t going to work out.