2009–2022 · three series, 331 episodes
The Vampire Diaries universe
Mystic Falls, a small town in Virginia: high-school student Elena Gilbert has just lost her parents in a car crash when the mysterious Stefan Salvatore arrives at her school. He is a vampire, more than 160 years old – and not the only one. His brother Damon follows, and with them the town’s past returns: its founding families have known about vampires since 1864.
From this love story grew an entire universe: witches of the Bennett line, werewolves, doppelgängers, the Mikaelson family – the very first vampires – and a school for supernaturally gifted teenagers. Three series tell one connected story over thirteen years.
The Vampire Diaries ran from 2009 to 2017 on The CW, developed by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec from the novels by L. J. Smith. The Originals followed in 2013, about Klaus Mikaelson and his siblings in New Orleans, and Legacies in 2018, about Klaus’s daughter Hope at the Salvatore School.
Three series
Elena, Stefan, Damon and Mystic Falls – the series where it all began.
Klaus, Elijah, Rebekah and the family drama of the first vampires in New Orleans.
Hope Mikaelson and the Salvatore School for supernaturally gifted teens.
The key characters
Elena GilbertNina Dobrev
Stefan SalvatorePaul Wesley
Damon SalvatoreIan Somerhalder
Katherine PierceNina Dobrev
Caroline ForbesCandice King
Bonnie BennettKat Graham
Alaric SaltzmanMatthew Davis
Niklaus “Klaus” MikaelsonJoseph Morgan
Elijah MikaelsonDaniel Gillies
Rebekah MikaelsonClaire Holt
Hayley MarshallPhoebe Tonkin
Hope MikaelsonDanielle Rose RussellThe world
Originals, doppelgängers, hybrids and the rules of the universe.
The small Virginia town was founded by the Salvatore, Gilbert, Lockwood, Forbes and Fell families. A secret f…
The Salvatore boarding houseThe Salvatore family’s old house is headquarters, living room and battleground for the gang, with a bar full …
The OriginalsThe Mikaelson family – Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol and Rebekah – were made the first vampires more than a thou…
VampiresAnyone who dies with vampire blood in their system wakes in transition and must drink human blood within a da…
VervainThe plant protects humans from vampire compulsion and burns vampires on contact. In Mystic Falls those in the…
Daylight ringsRings or jewellery with a lapis lazuli, enchanted by a witch, let vampires walk in the sun. Stefan, Damon and…
DoppelgängersNature keeps creating copies of Silas and Amara, the first immortal couple: Katherine and Elena of the Petrov…
The Bennett witchesOne of the most powerful lines of witches, reaching back to Qetsiyah. In 1864 Emily Bennett protected the vam…
Episode data and images: TVMaze (texts CC BY-SA 4.0, images belong to the series’ rights holders).