The Vampire Diaries Season 9 Release Date [2023 Updates]

As one of the longest-running TV shows, there are very few who would not know it.

But after it ran for 8 long seasons, What would its fate be? Will there be a Season 9?

What will be the plot? Who will be the cast in it? And most importantly Why have a Season 9?

Though now and then some rumours make rounds, the reality must be told. Read on, as we take you through everything that you need to know.

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Everything we know about The Vampire Diaries so far

It’s one of the best supernatural and horror TV Shows out there. Most of its viewers were teenagers or young adults.

It was made into a TV show by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec. They used LJ Smith’s book The Vampire Diaries as source material.

It first aired in 2009 and its first episode was a huge hit.

The first season got 3.6 million viewers. The last Season (eighth) was released in October 2016 and ran till 2017 March.

It received many awards and other accolades. The Show is about Elena Gilbert’s life and her tryst with supernatural creatures.

This character was played by Nina Dobrev. The story is set in Mystic Falls, an imaginary place that’s famous for its history.

The town was controlled by a Founder’s Council that involved all prominent members. After Elena loses her parents in an unfortunate mishap, she is left to fend for herself.

She has a younger brother too. Amidst all this, she meets a vampire. He was 162 years old and we know him as Stefan Salvatore.

This character was played by Paul Wesley. They soon fall in love. It gets more complicated when Stefan’s brother – Damon arrives (Played by Ian Somerhalder).

Both the vampire brothers are from the Salvatore family. Damon being the elder brother tries to dominate Stefan.

Elena resembles Damon’s old lover Katherine (also played by Nina Dobrev). As time passes, Damon also falls in love with Elena, thus creating a love triangle.

The Show deals with their experiences across various incidents in Mystic Falls. Their encounters with various supernatural creatures and other human beings form the main story.

There are vampire hunters, witches, and many others. The Vampire Diaries, therefore, opened up huge scope for other plots and subplots.

There were stories of the past, the present, and the future included. Different authors worked on it too.

After the release of Season 8 in 2017, it was concluded. Now, let’s go through the official announcements and other details of The Vampire Diaries.

Official Announcements and Release Date of The Vampire Diaries Season 9

The decision to conclude ‘The Vampire Diaries’ was made official during the San Diego Comic-Con on 23rd July 2016.

But, there were signals from the actors Ian and Kat, long before. As mentioned before, there are 8 seasons for the series, each released in one year gap.

Seasons	Aired On
Season 1 (22 episodes)	10th September 2009
Season 2 (22 episodes)	9th September 2010
Season 3 (22 episodes)	15th September 2011
Season 4 (23 episodes)	11th October 2012
Season 5 (22 episodes)	3rd October 2013
Season 6 (22 episodes)	2nd October 2014
Season 7 (22 episodes)	8th October 2015
Season 8 (16 episodes)	21st October 2016

A special episode named “Forever Yours” aired on March 10, 2017, featuring interviews of past and present cast members, directors, and crew involved in the production. It made the fans really happy as it was an insight into their favourite show.

So, sadly, there won’t be a ninth season of Vampire Diaries. As an alternative, you can watch the Vampire Diaries spinoffs “Legacies” and “Originals” to watch more vampire witches.

In a recent radio interview, Ian Somerhalder was asked if there is any update on the ninth season of the show and if there will be any news from the creators. He clearly stated that there is no need for a new season as the show has run its course and ended how it should have.

He does not think that the show requires a ninth season and the characters got the endings they deserved. The fans also liked the endings and the show is still living and being watched all over the world.

Ending of the Previous season

Season 8 had only 16 episodes. This was lesser compared to the previous seasons that had 20+ episodes.

This Season began with violence and ended with closure for all the protagonists. Stefan would die as a sacrifice to save his brother.

He would ensure that he made Damon into a human before leaving. Elena went on and married Damon.

Katherine is sent to hell for good and there won’t be any threats from her again.

Elena would wake up from the sleeping curse she was put in. Bonnie would help her there.

Elena would qualify as a medical doctor and spend time before Stefan’s grave. After living long enough, they left this world.

Elena reunites with her parents and Damon meets his brother. They meet their family at their respective houses in the other world.

Popularity Details of The Vampire Diaries Season 9

The Vampire Diaries ran over quite a long period. Its popularity is indisputable, owing to the large fan following it has beyond borders.

Let’s take a quick look at their online popularity.

Twitter

The Vampire Diaries has a Twitter account @cwtvd with 2.6 million followers. You can notice “CW” in its official handle.

We will explain more about that in the production section, below. For a TV Series that has 2.6 million followers, there’s not much to be said.

It’s uber-popular with the audience that frequents Twitter. The good engagement its tweets get even after the show is over, adds to this point.

The Vampire Diaries has a subreddit r/TheVampireDiaries. On Reddit, it does not enjoy much popularity compared to Mindhunter.

The sub sees erratic activity though it has 44 thousand members. Anyway, this must be one of the few rare cases where there’s a wide gap in popularity of the same show on two different platforms.

Google Search

Vampire Diaries is very much popular among teens and despite its last season coming in 2016, many are still hoping for another season.

According to data provided by Ahrefs, an estimated 32K people around the globe search for the term ‘ the vampire diaries season 9’ per month. It’s a good number considering, the series was officially concluded.

Google Trends

As you can see here, there was a spike, the highest in the last five years in Feb 2020. After that, it has fallen almost to zero.

So, there might be rumours of season 9 last year. But gradual falls confirm that there might not be a season 9.

Again those of you who want to see more vampires and werewolves then you can look for legacies, the spin-off of Vampire Diaries and Originals.

Expected Plot of The Vampire Diaries Season 9

Anyway, as explained before the chances for a Season 9 are negligible. Anyway, let’s answer it from a different perspective.

Season 8 had a lot of drama and action. The last episode of it showed a happy ending.

Damon married Elena and after a long life in this world, they bid goodbye to the world.

Elena reunites with her deceased parents – John and Jenna. Damon goes back to the Salvatore mansion and decides to spend time with Stefan.

They have a very emotional meeting. There’s not much left for the next Season. But, then we can expect some drama like Katherine coming back from hell.

Or the Salvatore brothers finding someone else and living a happy life. There are many ways they can take the story forward if they wish to.

Why There Won’t be Vampire Diaries Season 9?

This is hard to answer now that we know more about it. There are many reasons normally for a sequel.

It can be due to the source material, or due to fans demanding it. However, there’s a lot more that goes on behind the scenes.

Producers of a show have profit as their primary motive. They may not move ahead if they fear a loss or a negligible gain.

They may also hesitate to go ahead if any of the actors wish to leave the project.

In a long-running series, the value of an actor rises. That’s because the viewers have familiarized themselves with the face of the character.

It has also become one of the reasons why it won’t continue. You’ll know more when you read the online reactions to The Vampire Diaries.

There’s no specific reason or motivation to continue the Show. That’s why it was concluded.

The story reached saturation after so many Seasons. The producers made enough and started seeing a stage with low gains.

In short, Season 9 won’t be there due to all these reasons.

The Inspiration behind The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries was largely based on the novel series conceptualized by LJ Smith. The first book The Awakening was published in 1991.

Smith wrote the first 7 books while the remaining 3 were written by a Ghostwriter.

LJ Smith wrote one of the 2 Trilogies while the ghostwriter wrote another. There was one more trilogy in this series that was written by Aubrey Clark between 2012 and 2014.

The Vampire Diaries

The Awakening: Volume I (1991)
The Struggle: Volume II (1991)
The Fury: Volume III (1991)
Dark Reunion: Volume IV (1992)

Omnibuses The Awakening and The Struggle (2007) The Fury and Dark Reunion (2007)

The Return trilogy

The Return: Nightfall (2009)
The Return: Shadow Souls (2010)
The Return: Midnight (2011)

The Hunters trilogy

The Hunters: Phantom (2011)
The Hunters: Moonsong (2012)
The Hunters: Destiny Rising (2012)

The Salvation trilogy

The Salvation: Unseen (2013)
The Salvation: Unspoken (2013)
The Salvation: Unmasked (2014)

In the Second Trilogy, LJ Smith suggested the name Eternity for her 3rd book.

But, the name Destiny Rising was given by the ghostwriter.

Online Reactions for The Vampire Diaries Season 9

Online reactions act as a parameter for us to analyze acceptance and its popularity. It’s quite useful for the makers too.

Because they can use it to make changes and do course corrections and modifications.

Quora Reaction

Quora has a lot of questions and answers on The Vampire Diaries. Nothing unexpected as the show had a huge audience.

Here’s a useful answer we found on Quora that may help us explain more on Season 9.

Here, the user has reiterated our points. They also believe that there would not be a Season 9 for the show.

Reddit Reaction

This Reddit conversation sums up a lot. One of them is a fan who has fallen in love with The Vampire Diaries.

But they wanted it to end in Season 8 because the story became quite pointless and got dragged on.

Yes, 8 Seasons were too many for such a Show. Especially when it had an average of 20+ episodes per Season.

The story did suffer.

Twitter Reaction

These are some reactions from 2020. The tweets are reactions to Season 9. There were some rumours back in 2020 that talked about a new Season.

Most of these reactions are talking about that. There’s one tweet from 2021 here, on top.

That’s a casual one mentioning Season 9 for having a “watch party” of it. But seriously, the chances for it are too low.

Ratings and Reviews of The Vampire Diaries

Online Portals carry ratings and reviews of these Shows. It’s worth taking a look as those users are much more serious and nuanced.

Let’s start with IMDb.

Ratings

IMDb has rated The Vampire Diaries 7.7 out of 10. Though the mean and median give a different picture, let’s not be surprised.

The most number of users voted it 10 out of 10 followed by 8 and 9.

But, the reason its ratings fell was due to the excessive sequels. Some sequels may have even repelled fans (unless they were cult followers).

Here are the ratings for The Vampire Diaries from other web portals:

Website	Rating
IMDb	7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes (Average Tomatometer)	86%
Rotten Tomatoes (Average Audience Score)	69%
Metacritic Metascore	57
Metacritic User Score	8.0

Reviews

The Vampire Diaries received superb reviews, especially for its first Season. Anyway, the sequels don’t do as well as the first one.

Here’s a review from IMDb that rated it 10/10. This is from 2018, which was after the last Season was concluded.

The performance of the cast had got a special mention in most positive reviews.

Top 5 Best-Rated Episodes

Episode Name and Number	Ratings (IMDb)
The Departed (Episode 22, Season 3)	9.4/10
I Was Feeling Epic (Episode 16, Season 8)	9.3/10
Founder’s Day (Episode 22, Season 1)	9.2/10
The Sun Also Rises (Episode 21, Season 2)	9.1/10
Graduation (Episode 23, Season 4)	9.1/10

Awards and Recognitions of The Vampire Diaries

Award	Category
People’s Choice Awards (2010)	Favorite New TV Drama
Teen Choice Awards (2010)	Choice TV: Female Breakout Star
Teen Choice Awards (2010)	Choice TV: Male Breakout Star
Teen Choice Awards (2010)	Choice TV: Villain
Teen Choice Awards (2010)	Choice TV Actor: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Teen Choice Awards (2010)	Choice TV Actress: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Teen Choice Awards (2010)	Choice TV Breakout Show
Teen Choice Awards (2010)	Choice TV Show: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Young Hollywood Awards (2010)	Cast to Watch
Young Hollywood Awards (2010)	Making Their Mark
Teen Choice Awards (2011)	Choice TV: Female Scene Stealer
Teen Choice Awards (2011)	Choice TV: Male Scene Stealer
Teen Choice Awards (2011)	Choice TV Actor: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Teen Choice Awards (2011)	Choice TV Actress: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Teen Choice Awards (2011)	Choice TV Show: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
People’s Choice Awards (2012)	Favorite TV Drama Actress
Teen Choice Awards (2012)	Choice Male Hottie
Teen Choice Awards (2012)	Choice TV: Female Scene Stealer
Teen Choice Awards (2012)	Choice TV: Male Scene Stealer
Teen Choice Awards (2012)	Choice TV Actor: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Teen Choice Awards (2012)	Choice TV Actress: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Teen Choice Awards (2012)	Choice TV Show: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Teen Choice Awards (2013)	Choice TV Actor: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Teen Choice Awards (2013)	Choice TV Actress: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Teen Choice Awards (2013)	Choice TV Show: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
MTV Fandom Awards (2014)	Ship of the Year
People’s Choice Awards (2014)	Favorite On-Screen Chemistry
People’s Choice Awards (2014)	Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Actor
Teen Choice Awards (2014)	Choice TV: Female Scene Stealer
Teen Choice Awards (2014)	Choice TV Actor: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Teen Choice Awards (2014)	Choice TV Actress: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Teen Choice Awards (2014)	Choice TV Show: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Young Hollywood Awards (2014)	Best Threesome
People’s Choice Awards (2015)	Favorite TV Duo
Teen Choice Awards (2015)	Choice TV: Liplock
Teen Choice Awards (2015)	Choice TV Actress: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Teen Choice Awards (2015)	Choice TV Show: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Teen Choice Awards (2017)	Choice TV Actress: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Teen Choice Awards (2017)	Choice TV Show: Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Apart from the awards it received, it was also nominated in many categories for these awards:

People’s Choice Awards
Saturn Awards
Teen Choice Awards
Alma Awards
Do Something Awards
Young Hollywood Awards
MTV Fandom Awards

Production and Success of The Vampire Diaries

Currently, CW holds the rights to broadcast The Vampire Diaries. Legacies and The Originals. CW is an abbreviation of two Corporations:

CBS Corporations and
Warner Bros Entertainment.

Their joint venture was named CW and it was founded in 2006. Both these companies hold equal shares in it.

Let’s now go into the detailed analysis.

Production cost

The first episode of Season 1 was filmed in Vancouver. Later the production was moved to Georgia due to tax incentives.

The actors who played the three main roles were paid $30,000 to $40,000 per episode.

The estimated costs for running one hour of the show cost close to $ 1 million.

It included the costs of production and post-production. This made it quite an expensive affair.

But it was nowhere near the topmost ones like The Pacific or Game of Thrones.

Streaming and Box Office

The Vampire Diaries is now available for streaming on Netflix. It was earlier broadcast on CW Television Network.

The show made close to $ 1 million per episode including ad revenue. It was not that successful commercially.

It has however started earning Netflix a decent revenue post streaming.

Popular The Vampire Diaries Characters

Vampire Diaries has many important main characters as well as supporting characters. Some of the characters appearing in it got their spin-off like ‘The Originals’ and ‘Legacies’.

So, this series is filled with some amazing characters having amazing strength and skills. Let’s have a look at them.

Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev)

She’s one of the protagonists and a central character of The Vampire Diaries. She was born as the daughter of John and Isobel.

She also has a brother named Jeremy. Her parents were killed in an accident. After that, she was adopted by Grayson and Miranda.

She resembles Katherine, the lover of Damon Salvatore. Her encounters with the Salvatore brothers in their love triangle form the main plot of the Show.

Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder)

He is the elder son of Giuseppe Salvatore and Lily Salvatore. He has a younger brother too – Stefan Salvatore.

The two brothers ended up fighting due to Katherine. He plays the role of the antagonist, initially.

He snaps Elena’s brother’s neck out of anger. Though Jeremy escaped that assault thanks to a ring, it turned Elena against him.

He’s a 145-year-old vampire who later reunites with his estranged brother Stefan.

Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley)

Stefan is also a vampire. He became one after he drank Katherine’s blood. He later turned into a blood-addicted vampire.

But, deep down he yearns to become a human being. Stefan was initially repulsed when he got to know she(Katherine) was a vampire.

He falls in love with a human being, Elena.

Katherine Pierce (Nina Dobrev)

Katherine was Damon’s lover and she resembled Elena. She was responsible for the feud between the two Salvatore brothers.

She also had a hand in their mother’s death. She was a Bulgarian who got banished.

She loved Damon’s brother Stefan too, but it was a secret. She also had a role in turning the Salvatore brothers into vampires.

Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham)

Bonnie is Elena’s friend and someone who exercises a huge influence over her. She also has a good relationship with Caroline Forbes.

Bonnie is a witch or someone who has such powers inherited through their lineage. She falls in love with Elena’s brother Jeremy.

They broke up later when Bonnie got to know about his disloyalty.

Caroline Forbes (Candice King)

She’s also Elena’s friend who’s the Sheriff’s daughter. She appears as a selfish and pathetic character at first.

She was notorious for her insecurity, envy, and immaturity. But, once she turned into a vampire, she became more mature.

Towards the end of the show, she becomes a positive character.

Rumours and Controversies Surrounding The Vampire Diaries

The main rumour surrounding The Vampire Diaries was the release of Season 9. This rumour spread in 2020 even after the producers of the show concluded it in 2016-17.

This was denied by Ian Somerhalder who said: “the show would live on”. Five actresses of The Vampire Diaries were arrested in Georgia, for charges of disorderly conduct.

They were Nina Dobrev, Kayla Ewell, Krystal Vayda, Sara Canning, and Candice Accola. Their photographer Tyler Shields was also arrested.

A few weeks before the release, it happened during a photoshoot session. They were released after paying a $1000 fine.

Nina Dobrev who played two important roles left The Vampire Diaries after Season 6. She said that she was tired after the long hours of shooting.

However, she made a guest appearance in the final season. The protagonists fell in love, in real life too.

Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev were together for 3 years before breaking up. There were rumours of infidelity as he married Nikki Reed soon after his breakup with Nina.

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