Nina Dobrev Almost Starred in Another Hit Series Instead of The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries without Nina Dobrev‘s Elena would be really hard to imagine. Especially since the actress made a wonderful job portraying not only the main character of the series but her equally popular doppelganger Katherine Pierce.

Of course, Dobrev was already a well-known actress when she got cast in The CW’s hit show, but there’s no doubt that The Vampire Diaries changed her whole career for good and Elena it’s probably the role of her life. But she almost didn’t get it.

In a recent interview on Live with Kelly and Mark (via The Sun), the actress revealed that she was torn between auditioning for the series based on L. J. Smith’s popular novels or another acclaimed television series:

“I wasn’t allowed to test for both Vampire Diaries and Boardwalk Empire. And I didn’t know, like, how do you make a decision?… I think the thing that ended up being the deciding factor was that, I was 19 or 20, and Boardwalk Empire required me sign a nudity clause. But it wasn’t in the script. It was like, at some point, there might be nudity and you’ll have to do it.”

Even though Boardwalk Empire was an amazing project that ran for five seasons and many consider it was one of the most underrated tv shows ever, the popularity Dobrev earned thanks to The Vampire Diaries is incomparable.

Created by Terence Winter (The Sopranos), Boardwalk Empire is set in Atlantic City in the 1920s, at the height of the prohibition on the sale of alcohol. Amidst political changes and much chaos, State Treasurer Enoch “Nucky” Thompson gets on with impunity with his criminal activities taking over everything around him.

Related: 5 Best Nina Dobrev Movie & TV Performances, Ranked

The Legacy of The Vampire Diaries

Released in 2009, The Vampire Diaries became one of the most popular teen series from The CW. Based on the story created by L. J. Smith, which followed a young girl named Elena who ends up in the middle of a love triangle with two vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore.

What Elena didn’t know is that the romance between her and the Salvatores is actually pretty ancient, and it’s connected to the history of her town, Mystic Falls in the series and Fell’s Church in the books. The Vampire Diaries didn’t necessarily follow the story told on the books page by page, and it in fact made some significant changes when the series became so popular The CW wanted to keep adding seasons and even side projects.

But it wasn’t just the original show that was really popular. In 2013, The Originals was presented as the first spinoff of the show, which showed the lives of an old family of vampires led by Joseph Morgan’s Klaus. In 2018, Klaus’ daughter got the chance to tell her own story in The Vampire Diaries: Legacies.

There were also two web series set in the same universe. The Vampire Diaries: A Darker Truth and The Originals: The Awakening.

The original show starred Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, Steven R. McQueen, Matt Davis, Candice Accola, Kat Graham, and Michael Trevino among many others.